Benedictine Monastery

On Mljet, one of the quieter, greener islands off the Dalmatian coast, a small islet inside the Veliko Jezero (Great Lake) holds a 12th-century Benedictine monastery. Duke Desa of Zahumlje granted the islet to Benedictine monks from the monastery of St. Mary in Pulsano, Italy, in 1151, and construction ran from around 1177 to 1198, when Pope Innocent III consecrated the church.

The complex grew over the centuries into a mix of Romanesque, Renaissance, and later Baroque work, and at some point the monks added defensive walls, since the lake's narrow channel to the sea made the site an easy pirate target. That chapter closed in 1809, when Napoleon's forces shut the monastery down. The island later passed through private hands and even operated as a hotel from 1960 to 1991 before the buildings were handed back for restoration.

Today the islet sits inside Mljet National Park, reached by a short rowing-boat crossing over the lake, and it's one of the more peaceful stops on this stretch of coast — often visited as part of a Dubrovnik gulet cruise that takes in Mljet along the way.