ARSLANAGIĆ BRIDGE

This elegant ^16th-century Ottoman bridge (Arslanagića Most/Арсланагића Мост) spans the Trebišnjica 1.1 km northeast of the Old Town. But it wasn't always there... It was built in 1574 in Arslanagić, a (partly buried) village 5 km upstream, and moved here in 1972 when a hydroelectric dam was built. However, it has retained its original architecture: an 80 m-long deck and four semicircular arches (two large ones in the center and two smaller ones leaning against the banks). The bridge was financed by Mehmed Pacha Sokolović, the Bosnian-born Grand Vizier ("Prime Minister") of the Ottoman Empire, who also built the Višegrad Bridge. Serving as a link between Herzegovina and the Montenegrin port of Herceg Novi (40 km to the southeast), the bridge was placed under the protection of the Bosnian Arslanagić family, who gave their name to the bridge and the village crossing it. At the end of the Second World War, Serbian Chetniks blew up the central section to escape the advance of Tito's partisans. The rebuilt structure was further damaged in 1965 when the Yugoslav state turned it into a road bridge. It was then moved here stone by stone from 1966 to 1972. During the 1992-1995 war, in the midst of Serbian nationalist frenzy, the municipality renamed the structure Perović, after the neighboring village. Also known as "Mehmed Pasha's Bridge" (Mehmed-Paša Most), today it is more often referred to by its historical name (Arslanagića Most) by the majority of locals.