A House on the Smekija estate

The house, known today as the house of the Rašković family, used to belong to the Smekja family from Perast. After the liberation of Herceg Novi from Turkish rule (1687), a greater part of Herceg Novi Riviera became owned by the nobility of Perast.

Their estates usually included vineyards, olive groves and orchards, with summer residences built by the sea, where the families spent two to three months a year, usually during harvest time. Some wealthier families also had small chapels on the estates, which served both the families and the local community.

On their estate in Baošići, the Smekija family had a chapel dedicated to the martyrs St. Vinko and Lovro. According to the archives, the chapel was constructed in 1735 by Captain Vicko Smekja and his brothers. The chapel had an altar made of Carrara marble, which is now in St. Anne’s church in Đurići.

In 1880, the French writer Pierre Lotti stayed in the house. At that time, Lotti was an officer on a French warship which was part of an international fleet that sailed into the Bay of Boka Kotorska in order to force Turkey to cede the towns of Bar and Ulcinj to Montenegro. Lotti wrote the story titled “Paskvala Ivanović” in which he described his impressions of Boka Kotorska.

Today the palace is in a ruined state. In the enclosing wall, facing the sea, is the entrance portal. The keystone of the portal carries the coat-of-arms of the Smekja family with a hand holding a stalk (“čičimak”), a symbol of the “casada” Čizmai to which the Smekja family belonged, and stars, a symbol specific to the family. The fencing wall carries a plaque with an inscription in French recording Pierre Lotti’s stay in the house.