The town of Mostar

In the complicated administrative unit of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mostar is part of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in the canton of Herzegovina-Neretva from which it is the chief town. Its population is estimated at a little more than 70,000 inhabitants, after the losses undergone at the time of the war of Bosnia (2 000 exiled deaths and 26,000 inhabitants).

Mostar is regarded as one of the treasures of medieval Othoman architecture in Europe.

Its “District of the Old Bridge of the Old city of Mostar” is registered on the list of the world heritage of UNESCO.

In 1452, a document mentions the city - then in possession of Raguse - as “duet castelli Al big shot of Neretua”.

In 1468, this strategic place passed under Othoman domination. Until 1477, the locality named “Köprühisar”, Bridge-of-Castle, of “köprü” (bridge) and “hisar” (castle). The bridge, still of already strategic wood but, was indeed protected by towers located on both sides.

Into Serb Cyrillic, Mostar is written Мостар.

The two cities are separated by “Bulevar Narodne Revolucije” (Boulevard of the National Revolution), the longest avenue of Mostar. It is this boulevard, but rather an avenue, which marked the demarcation line at the time of the conflict of 1992-1995; it still shows the traces of the terrible destruction. The absence of control panels referring of the one with the other part of the city is rather revealing of this tearing.

The modern city, in the west, does not present much tourist interest: tourism concentrates on Othoman the old working of the oriental party, who was partially rebuilt.

The oriental party is smaller than the Western part, but it is oldest: one finds there, in south-east, the Othoman historical quarters, the Turkish old city (Stari grad).

It is in 1468 that Mostar passed under Othoman domination and that the Turkish urbanisation of the district started. According to the not written Eastern rule, the city was organized in two distinct zones: carsija, the artisanal and commercial zone of the colony, and mahala, the residential zone; in this residential zone the Othoman houses, hung askew to steep cliffs of Neretva, stage their terraces.

Ivo Andrić, writer Bosnian who received Nobel Prize of literature, described it as follows:

“It is reverberated like a gilded reflection, exuberant in glass of Žilavka, wine of Mostar. She saw, like in charge of force and soft savor, in your fishings and your cherries… By this light, Neretva is your most luminous waterway, it gives to the karst stripped of the surrounding mounts a supernatural size. ”

The Twisted Bridge, or Curved Bridge, is a bridge hones some in the shape of low-size arch. The arch is a perfect half-circle of 8.56 m width and 4.15 meters height. The frontage and the vault are built with regular blocks of stones which were integrated into the horizontal layer all the way along the vault. Space between the vault, the frontal wall and the roadway is filled with broken stones. The roadway of the bridge and the access roads are paved rollers as for an important way of the city. Rise of the bridge on the two east coasts facilitated by stone steps. The oldest bridge with only one stone arch with Mostar.

On December 16th, 1999, of the dramatic floods took place with Mostar: water of Neretva and Radobolia submerged together the Twisted Bridge, but this bridge initially seemed to resist. On December 22nd, an unforeseen collapse of the basement caused serious damage and, on December 31st, the bridge collapsed. It has had for rebuilt summer in a more or less happy way at the same time as the Old Bridge.

The old bridge also was as from the years 1960 until the end as of years 1980, a popular tourist destination.

It is of tradition for the young men of the town of jump of the bridge in Neretva. As Neretva is very cold, it is a very risky exploit to which only the most qualified plungers and best formed are risked. This practice goes up at the time where the bridge was built. The Old Bridge accommodates as in the past the traditional championship of dive whose room is the Cardak maisonnette located at the Western exit of the bridge.

This old medieval bridge was rebuilt by the Sultan Fatih Mehmed between 1468 and 1481, but like the economic and administrative importance of Mostar grew during years 1550-1560, the replacement of the precarious bridge out of wooden by a surer bridge imposed itself.

It is the Bey Mehmed Karadjoz which was responsible for the behavior of the accounts of the construction financed on the funds of the sultan; the bridge would have cost 300,000 drams (silver coins).

The realization, it, was entrusted to the architect Mimar Hajrudin (or Mimar Hayreddin), a pupil of the great architect Mimar Sinan, father of traditional Othoman architecture, author of the mosque of Karadjoz Bey in Mostar.

The bridge was designed like a bridge with only one arch. Its construction lasted of 1557 to 1566: according to an inscription in visible Othoman on the bridge before its recent destruction, this one was finished in year 974 of the Hegira, i.e. between on July 19th, 1566 and on July 7th, 1567.

The little story tells that Hajrudin would never have seen the completed bridge: fearing to have the distinct head if the bridge crumbled, he flees before the scaffolding was withdrawn.

“is like a rainbow flown away to the sky, extending from one cliff to another. … Me, poor and miserable slave of God, I travelled by sixteen countries, but I never saw such a high bridge. It is thrown of a rock until as high as the sky. ”

The bridge consists of a very pure single arch in hogback, 28.7 m of free range, 4 m of width and 30 m length; it rises to 21 m above level of Neretva in summer. The arch of the bridge was made local stone of known very white color under the name of stone of tenelija.

Stari Most is regarded as the masterpiece of the civil engineer of the Othoman time in Balkans. The technique used conferred a great solidity to him: the bridge gives the impression to be made with only one block of stone; with that a reason: the blocks are only maintained by pins of iron sealed with lead. The solidity of this work was such as it resisted when, during the Second world war, of the German tanks crossed it.

The Old Bridge had thus resisted during centuries all the conflicts, and the principal danger which threatened it was erosion due to moisture.

The choice was made of a rebuilding as similar as possible to the original bridge of 1566, by using the same Othoman techniques of the 16th century and same materials. Some stones of the old bridge, recovered in the river by plungers of the Hungarian army, were used, in particular for the coating of the bridge. But the majority by 1088 blocks installed had to be recut in the same stone of tenelija and miljevina coming from the same local careers, in order to reproduce the bridge with the identical one.

After long years of studies and work, the rebuilding began on June 7th, 2001. The unveiling of the new bridge took place on July 22nd, 2004, and its commissioning the following day. Work had cost 15 million euros.

Stari Most and its district in the old city of Mostar were classified with the world heritage of UNESCO in 2005.

The tower Halebinovka or Halebija (of the name of the Halebija captain which completely rebuilt the tower starting from the end of the 17th century) rises on Right Bank. The lower part of the Halebinovka tower was used as prison while the upper floors were used as observation posts.

She was also named Celovina tower, of the name of Mustafa Čelić, governor of Bosnia of 1714 to 1716, which did work of enlarging.

It was built by the duke (Croatian herceg) Stjepan Vukčić-Kosača in first half of the 15th century to protect the bridge on Neretva, at one time when the bridge was still the bridge out of wooden suspended with chains.

The museum is open 10:00 to Fermé 18:00 Monday.

It was completed to build in 1618 by the Pasha Mehmed Koski, secretary of the top dog Lala Pasha Sokulluvić.

Its minaret is set up to 5 m of bank, just above Neretva; one can go up at the top of minaret from the interior of the mosque and admire the sight on the valley of Neretva.

The Bišćević House is one of the rare authentic Turkish houses of mahalla, with its court of rollers and its wood galleries; it is a true haven of peace with its fountain and its terrapins.

Visit 9:00 at 17:00

Tariff of entry: 8 km.

The old bazaar of Kujundžiluk is located on left bank of the river, north of Vieux Bridge. It draws its name from the goldsmiths (kujundzije) who worked the gold and whose gravers were numerous in the district under the Othoman domination. The goldsmiths - and other craftsmen like the tailors (terzije), tanners (tabaci), ironmongers, dinandiers, saddlers and tisserands - played a significant role in the development of Mostar at the time Othoman.

Today its lanes inclined paved of round rollers and its traditional gravers with the stone hoods accommodate especially the shops where authentic paintings, engravings are sold on copper or of bronze sculptures of Stari Most or of grenades (the natural symbol of Herzegovina), or famous “the stećci” in miniature (a stećak is a medieval tomb stone pre-Othoman).

The Mosque of the Bey Karadjoz was completed in 1557; it is the work of the Othoman architect Mimar Koca Sinan. It is surmounted by a large cupola and has a high minaret; that makes of it the largest mosque of the area; a fountain (sadrvan) was in the court, in front of the mosque. This court gives access to the médersa (medressa) that one can also see since the avenue Maréchal Tito (Maršala Tita).

On the Mount Er which dominates Mostar in the west draws up cross a catholic, 10 height m, enlightened the night.

The cathedral was destroyed in 1992, as well as the monastery and the episcopal palace, by bombardments of Serb artillery. Its rebuilding - out of concrete - and that of the monastery are in the course of completion. It was however inaugurated in 2001 and can be visited.

Its very high and very slim bell-tower seems to compete with the minarets of the mosques located on other bank.

Mostar is connected by the railroad to the capital, Sarajevo, and in Ploče on the Croatian coast, with two trains of passengers per day between Sarajevo and Ploče. This railway line was built at the time where Bosnia-Herzegovina was annexed in Austria-Hungary. The station is located east of the town of Mostar.

Mostar has also an international airport located at approximately 6 km in the south of the center town.