Travel Guide Mostar

Mostar (Мостар), population 113,000, is the capital of Herzegovina-Neretva Canton (population 225,000). The two main communities are Bosnian-Croats (51%) and Bosnians (46%). The city is located 129 km southwest of Sarajevo(via Jablanica), 139 km northwest of Dubrovnik (Croatia) and 167 km east of Split (Croatia).Mostar is the pearl of tourism in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It was already before the war. The images of the destruction of its Old Bridge (Stari most) in 1993 moved the international opinion. Since the reconstruction of the building in 2004 and its classification as a Unesco World Heritage Site in 2005, tourists have been flocking there again, in even greater numbers: 500,000 per year, an increase of 15% each year. Established around the bridge in the 15th century, the old town (Stari Grad) is magnificent and has been brilliantly rebuilt. It overlooks the Neretva River, in a small rocky canyon, about 20 meters below. This river enchants the visitor with its emerald green color, unique in the world. We also discover superb mosques, old Ottoman houses, churches, steep streets. The city has expanded over the centuries to the west to become a modern city while the east, blocked by the steep foothills of the Velež massif, all bare rock, remains preserved. The first time visitor to Mostar, especially if he or she comes from the north and Sarajevo, is struck by this suddenly southern and eastern scenery, from which emanates an incomparable poetry, which is also due to the particular light of its river.