From the earliest days Perast was turned to the sea and seafaring. As early as 1336, Perast had a shipyard that operated until 1813. It received the status of a municipality in 1580 and kept it until 1950. However, Perast experienced its greatest prosperity in the 17th and 18th centuries, when about a hundred Perast ships sailed the world’s seas. Since one of the most famous naval schools was in Perast, Peter the Great, on the recommendation of Venice, sent the sons of famous noble families to Perast to study with the famous mathematician and navigator Marko Martinović. The data show that during 1697 and 1698, 17 Russian princes sailed on Marko Martinović’s ship.

The existing church dates from the 17th century and the construction was completed with the construction of a magnificent bell tower in 1691. On the west wall of the church there is a memorial plaque with the text carved in the vernacular, placed in honor of the victory of a small number of Perast residents in the battle against the Turks on May 15, 1654. Perast residents managed to defend themselves because brothers Sladoje and Stijepo Stijepovic from Risan succeeded the day before to inform his third brother Petar Stijepović, who settled in Perast, about the planned attack.