Marian piety as devotional and integrative system in the Bay of Kotor in the early modern period

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to present the fundamental role of Marian piety in religious, social, gender and everyday life of inhabitants of the Bay of Kotor during the early modern period. Marian piety – shaped by varying historical conditions within certain geographic environments – played a formative role in the creation of verbal and visual culture. It has been a main force witch outlined the sacral topography of the Bay and thus one of the most important instruments of the integration of the localities and people in this part of the Adriatic Sea.