Benedictine Monastery of St. Mary

This guide to the Benedictine Monastery of St. Mary on Lokrum island near Dubrovnik opens with a local legend: monks expelled by Napoleon's forces allegedly circled the island by candlelight and cursed anyone who claimed it for personal pleasure. It follows an Austrian naval officer named Maximilian, who arrived decades later to honor sailors lost in a shipwreck, fell for the island's stillness, bought it in eighteen fifty-nine, and built a summer residence over the monastery ruins, planting a cypress avenue and importing peacocks from the Canary Islands, many chosen by his wife, Charlotte.