I took this photograph from farther down the River Neretva, primarily because I had forgotten to take one while walking across the bridge itself when it was extremely busy. This is the Stari Most, looking rather delicate against the surrounding mountains. The bridge was commissioned by the Ottoman sultan Suleiman the Magnificent and constructed between 1557 and 1566 under the direction of Mimar Hayruddin. Its single stone arch connected the two sides of Mostar for more than four centuries and became so closely associated with the city that Mostar itself takes its name from the mostari, the bridge keepers who guarded the crossing.
The bridge visible today is a reconstruction. The original survived earthquakes and centuries of political change before being destroyed by Bosnian Croat forces on 9 November 1993 during the Croat–Bosniak conflict. Images of the arch collapsing into the river became one of the most powerful symbols of the damage done to cultural heritage during the Bosnian War and I watched the video on YouTube of the destruction.
And since I’ve mentioned it, here’s the video.
This closer view shows the remarkable height and steeply curved profile of the bridge. The reconstruction was undertaken as an international project coordinated with UNESCO and the World Bank, using traditional building methods and locally quarried Tenelija limestone chosen to match the original masonry. Stari Most reopened on 23 July 2004 and the bridge and surrounding Old City were inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List the following year. It was intended not simply as an architectural restoration, but as a symbol of reconciliation in a city that remains divided in numerous ways. More on that theme in a future blog post though, this was certainly a complex city.
The metal platform in the river belongs to Mostar’s long tradition of bridge diving. Local divers leap from the top of the arch into the exceptionally cold Neretva approximately 24 metres below, although this requires training rather than merely an excess of holiday confidence. Organised competitions have taken place for generations and the spectacle has become almost as closely associated with the bridge as the architecture itself. Jonathan and I weren’t tempted.
From this angle, the bridge can be seen with the fortified towers that once controlled access to it. The Tara Tower stands on the eastern bank and the Halebija Tower on the western side, both forming part of the historic defensive complex surrounding the crossing. The buildings climbing the riverbanks help explain why the bridge feels like part of the old town rather than an isolated monument. Its arch links two dense groups of stone buildings and narrow streets, just as the original was designed to do in the sixteenth century.
Although this is technically a twenty-first-century bridge, it has been reconstructed closely enough to restore one of Europe’s most recognisable Ottoman views. It was always busy with tourists when we walked over it and I’m not sure that I would have realised it was a modern replacement, it feels like an authentic reconstruction.