Lepetane, Montenegro Lepetane is a small town on the coast of the Vrmac peninsula, between Kotor (see Montenegro) and Tivat (see it), located in the Verige Strait - the narrowest part of the Bay of Kotorska. At the coordinates 42° 27' 55" N, 18° 41' 9" E, they are located opposite Kamenara (see that), with which they have been connected for more than a century by a regular ferry line. Verige Strait is 2.4 km long and about 350 m wide. Today, modern ferries cover that distance in about 10 minutes. According to one, conditionally romantic theory, Lepetane got its name from le putanas or easy women, for whom the captains from Kotor, Dobrot and Prčanjan built houses here, and how could they visit them under the conditions that their jealous wives-captains would not know about it! According to another version, Lepetane owes its name to the Pera family Lepetani (or Lepetanus), whose property they once belonged to. The place is therefore not called Lepetani, but Lepetane. How about, they are mentioned in the 15th century, although there was a settlement here before, but under the name Sveti Lovrijenac, after the former church...

The center of Lepetan is right on the plateau, in front of which every few minutes in the summer the boats, as Bokelji call ferries, dock. The settlement stretches to the left and right of the plateau, deep into the hill full of former arable cascades, with numerous olive roots. Also, small sandy beaches are lined up to the left and right. According to Tivat, the more picturesque beach is on Cape Opatovo. This cape is located right across the straits and Cape Sv. Sunday - from the Herzegovina side. There are lighthouses on both capes. The one with St. Sunday flashes red, and the one from Opatovo flashes green. These markings are very important, because many vessels pass here during the season, the most beautiful of which are certainly tourist cruise ships, dominant floating mountains, and passenger ships with as many as 13 decks! It seems to the bather that he can almost touch them with his hand, as they pass close to the shore!

Seen from Lepetan to the right, there are popular, somewhat more isolated bathing spots. Those sandy beaches are small pure medallions! The bathing crown (wild by all parameters, but that's why it's so attractive) is located at the narrowest part of the straits, on Cape Gospa od Anđela, with a privileged view of ancient Perast! The small church there was mentioned in 1526, although a defensive wall with loopholes was built around it only in 1585 - for defense against pirates and Turks. Namely, since the Turks occupied Herceg Novi in ​​1482, they have been continuously attacking and harassing the inner (Venice since 1420) territory of the Bay of Kotor. That is why the Our Lady of the Angels is guarded day and night. Since 1585, it has been a kind of fortress here, with water cisterns. Today, the church is unfortunately in a dilapidated state, but even as it is, it is simply fascinating. It is a constant target of the photo lens from the cruise ship, or from the interfacing plateau of the Turkish Cape (330 m away, one would say - on hand).

There was a church of Our Lady of the Snow in the strait until 1654, but it was destroyed on July 15 of that year during the Turkish siege of Perast. A few meters from the shore, there are still visible remains of the small church of Our Lady of Rice, built according to legend when a ship full of rice ran aground in the past on that very spot, a few hundred meters from the center of Lepetan. Apart from the Venetians, the Austrians also built various fortifications in Veriga, such as a large gunpowder. Partisans will blow up her remains in 1942.

In 1379, about 40 years before the arrival of the Venetians (at the express invitation of the then independent Kotor), Bartolomeo Paruta is mentioned in Lepetani, who came to the aid of the Venetians in a naval battle against the Genoese. Then Paruta armed two galleys with 240 oarsmen at his own expense. For this feat, the Republic of Venice proclaimed him a nobleman and a member of the Grand Council of Venice, so this Lepetanac was the first Bokelj whom the Venetians included as a member of the Grand Council!

In the local church of St. Anton Padovanski, built in 1760, contains an altar painting of Our Lady of the Rosary with St. Anthony and St. Domenico. The work belongs to Tiepolo's school in the 18th century. The painting was donated by Patron Anton Damjanović, a ship owner from Lepetan. In the church there is also a very interesting painting of St. The Virgin, work of an unknown Franciscan from 1869. The inhabitants of Lepetan, apart from the fact that they are still famous for good fishermen, and those from higher cascade positions for good olive growers, have always been known for seafaring. At the beginning of the 17th c. they are mentioned as sailors on Pera ships and as workers in the shipyard there. As ship owners and captains, they appear mostly after the fall of the Venetian Republic, first in the list of Bokele ships and captains from 1807 (the year of the French occupation).

At that time, Lepetane had about 400 inhabitants. According to a report from 1729, Lepetane had 7 sailing ships, 45 sailors, and a century later - 27 ships of long and coastal navigation. The sailors of Lepetan distinguished themselves in the Russian and Argentine merchant marines, as well as on steamships of the Austrian Lloyd. A Renaissance park has been preserved next to the Ivović house. In the hamlet of Veče brdo, about 45 minutes' walk away, the medieval church of St. Elijah.