Stari Most

Spanning the Neretva River since 1566, Mostar's Old Bridge (Stari Most) is one of the Ottoman Empire's finest achievements in the Balkans: a large, light-colored arch with clean, humpbacked lines, spanning 27 m, 4 m wide and 29 m long. It is located in the heart of the old town: 400 m east of the "Bulevar" on Onešćukova Street, or 1.4 km south of the railway station on Maršala-Tita Street. Guarded by two powerful towers, the structure is superb. It is also impressive for its height: from 21 to 29 m above the water, depending on the level of the Neretva. Listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2005, this venerable pedestrian bridge is the most famous monument in the former Yugoslavia, visited by hundreds of thousands of tourists during the summer season. Despite the crowds, you'll never tire of crossing it from one bank to the other, admiring it at any time of day from the terraces of the restaurants lined up around it, and witnessing the always fascinating (and terrifying) spectacle of the young men of Mostar who, in summer and winter alike, majestically leap from its parapet to plunge into the swift, cold, shallow waters of the Neretva. The Old Bridge also owes its fame to its... destruction. On November 9, 1993, it collapsed under the artillery fire of the HVO, the "Croatian Defense Committee" which was besieging the Bosnians in the old town. The images of this destruction were seen around the world. Emotions ran so high that rebuilding the structure identically became a priority, even before the end of the war. It took no less than ten years of studies and work carried out under the aegis of Unesco for the Old Bridge to be reborn in 2004.

Origins. Excavations carried out during the reconstruction work proved that two versions of a wooden bridge existed here from the ^11th century onwards. A strategic crossing, the site enabled merchants from Ragusa (Dubrovnik) to take their caravans up to the heart of Bosnia. Every time they crossed, merchants had to pay a tax to the mostari. It was these "bridge keepers" who gave their name to the town, making Mostar the second wealthiest city in the region behind Dubrovnik. After the Ottoman conquest in 1470, the town continued to grow, and it soon became necessary to transform the wooden "Old Bridge" into a more solid stone structure. Mimar Hajrudin (c. 1490-1570), a pupil of the great Ottoman architect Mimar Sinan and designer of Istanbul's Bayezid-II mosque, was called in. He arrived on the scene around 1557 and designed an arch that was light in appearance, yet extremely solid. This was made possible by a revolutionary technique: the 456 limestone blocks that make up the bridge are held together by the force of the thrust, but above all by lead-sealed iron pins. Legend has it that Hajrudin fled before the scaffolding could be removed, fearing that the bridge would collapse. In fact, such was the sturdiness of the edifice that the Old Bridge withstood earthquakes and all but the last conflict for over four centuries.

Destruction. Mostar has been under siege by the HVO and the Croatian army since May 9, 1993. In September, the ARBiH (Army of Bosnia-Herzegovina) launched a victorious counter-offensive. But this was stopped dead in its tracks by the Bosnian government, morally destabilized by the murder of 60 Bosnian-Croat soldiers by its own troops. The HVO then subjected the Bosnian districts of the old town to a deluge of fire in the autumn of 1993: in revenge, but also because it did not have the means to defeat the ARBiH, solidly entrenched on either side of the Neretva. One by one, all the bridges collapsed under the blows of the HVO artillery. The Old Bridge, which had held out for four hundred and twenty-seven years, was the last to collapse on November 9, hit by around 60 shells. The HVO would later admit to having deliberately targeted it, but for strategic reasons. In fact, before the coup de grâce, the damaged Old Bridge was no longer able to supply the ARBiH troops stationed on the right bank front line. The destruction had above all a political and symbolic objective: to remove a monument associated with Islamic and Bosnian culture. In 2013, the main Croat and Bosnian-Croat officers who led the HVO in the area were sentenced to long prison terms by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, notably for the destruction of the Old Bridge, considered a violation of the laws or customs of war.

Reconstruction. The sight of the destroyed Old Bridge came as a shock to the people of Mostar, who had no idea that it could ever be rebuilt. However, four months after the monument was shelled, while Bosnia-Herzegovina was still at war, Unesco launched an appeal for reconstruction on March 10, 1994. Major international financial institutions, a number of patrons and countries such as France and Turkey responded favorably, later joined by Croatia. A temporary footbridge was installed in the bridge's place by Spanish engineers. And, while Hungarian army divers recovered blocks weighing up to eight tons from the Neretva, limestone of the same quality ( tenelija type) was sought from local quarries already in use in the ^16th century. But scandal struck. The original plan was to train local stonemasons, recruited from all sections of the population, with the aim of bringing communities together and making the bridge a symbol of reconciliation. In the end, however, a Turkish company specializing in the restoration of Ottoman buildings was commissioned in 2001. However, the company's mastery of Mimar Hajrudin's highly specialized techniques prevented it from reproducing the perfect shape of the original arch. After two and a half years of painstaking work, the "new Old Bridge" was inaugurated with great fanfare on July 23, 2004.

Neighborhood. On July 15, 2005, less than a year after its reopening, the bridge was inscribed on UNESCO's prestigious World Heritage List. It was not just the bridge itself, but the entire "Old Bridge Quarter of the Old City of Mostar" that was listed by the United Nations cultural organization. the Old Bridge district, with its architectural features (pre-Ottoman, Eastern Ottoman, Mediterranean and Western European) is an outstanding example of multicultural urban occupation," explains Unesco. The rebuilt bridge and the Old Town of Mostar are a symbol of international cooperation and the coexistence of diverse cultural, ethnic and religious communities." The World Heritage area covers a 7.6-hectare pedestrian zone in the historic district of Stari Grad ("Old Town"), on either side of the Old Bridge on both banks of the Neretva River. On the right bank, to the west, the protected area includes: the Halebija tower guarding the western entrance to the Old Bridge, a portion of Onešćukova Street (former workshops converted into stores) and Rade-Bitange Street (former Tabhana tanners' quarter with the Hadži-Kurt mosque and the Ćejvan-Ćehaja hammam), as well as the area around the small "curved" bridge. To the east, the listed area is narrower. It runs along the left bank of the Neretva between the Tara Tower (home to the Old Bridge Museum) and the beautiful Koski-Mehmed-Pacha Mosque, linked by the splendid little Kujundžiluk Street (artisan workshops and souvenir stores) and Mala-Tepa Street ("little hill"). The entire historic district is surrounded by a 48-hectare buffer zone where all construction is - in theory - strictly regulated. Most of Mostar's hotels, restaurants, bars, travel agencies and tourist attractions are concentrated within this restricted perimeter.