Destination Mostar

The city of Mostar is situated in a beautiful valley bedded between high mountains of Herzegovina. It is thanks to the river Neretva that Mostar was able to develop as a city in the desert-like landscape of Herzegovina. Neretva’s size turned Mostar very early in to a trading centre of the region. What makes this city known is it’s famous bridge. The Old Bridge was built by the Ottoman empire in 1565. It was the great architect Mimar Hajrudin who had succeded with the impossible mission to cross the Neretva river with a single span stone bridge.

Mostar got its name after that same Bridge, or more precisely after the bridge keepers. They used to guard the bridge and were called “Mostari”, thereby the city got its name.  Mostar’s population in 2003 was 105,448. With its hot summers and mild winters, Mostar is also one of Europe’s sunniest cities.

Places to see:

• Old Bridge: The Old Bridge of Mostar, (Stari Most), was a stone bridge with a single span of almost 29 metres and a curvature close to a lowered centre half-circle, (with some peculiarities at the impost level and at the key stone). It was characterised by very slender and elegant shapes: its profile and its skyline were so thin and so high over the river waters that it was hardly to believe that such a structure could be worked out of huge stone blocks. Built in tenelija stone, it was of a light tone colour, bright and changing during daytime depending on sun colours.
• Old Town:

  Kujundziluk and Tabhana

  Handicraftsmen played a huge part in Mostar’s development in the early years of its existence, and have continued to do so even today. Now they have one of the key roles in the city’s tourist offer. On the left bank of Neretva we can find Kujundziluk. The name came from Kujundzije or in English “coppersmiths”. This is a tradition very well preserved even today. Unlike then you can now find them everywhere in the old town and not only in Kujundziluk, as well as you can find other kinds of shops in kujundziluk that are not necessarily coppersmiths. In Mostar there were also many tailors (terzije), and at last Mostar’s biggest industry, tanners (tabaci). The last two mentioned are today unfortunately as good as gone. “Tabhana”- the palace where the tanners used to process their leather is now a line of cafés. It’s an excellent place to have the morning coffee in an old Turkish atmosphere.

• Biscevica House: Turkish house or Biscevica corner, is one of the most beautiful preserved residential structures from the Turkish period. It was built in 1635. Kajtaz house was built by the end of 18 th century. House is surrounded by the high walls which protected girls and women from curious men sights. In the interior is a special space which separates men from women.
• Crooked bridge: Beside the famous Stari Most (Old Bridge), a genuine symbol of the town destroyed in 1993, there is another ancient bridge in Mostar: the Kriva cuprija (or the Crooked Bridge). It crosses the Rabobolja creek, a right-bank affluent of the Neretva River. The exact date of its construction and the name of its founder are not known.

  Kriva cuprija is a stone one-arch bridge of small dimension and closely resembles the Stari Most. The arch is a perfect semicircle 8.56m in width and 4.15m in height. The frontage and vault are made of regular stone cubes incorporated into the horizontal layers all along the vault. The space between vault, frontal walls and footpath is filled with cracked stone. The bridge footpath and the approaching roads are paved with cobblestones, as is the case with the main roads in the town. Stone steps enable people to ascend to the bridge either side. The floods of December 2000 destroyed this bridge.

• Mosques:

  Karadjoz-bey mosque

  This is considered to be the most beautiful mosque in the region of Herzegovina. With it’s big dome and high minaret it is also the biggest one. It was built by the Turkish architect Kodza Mimar Sinan in 1557. The size of the interior is 13,4x13,4 meters. This one, like all the other mosques in Mostar didn’t get pass the hand of the war. In the second world war it was severely damaged, and in the last Yugoslav-war it was almost completely destroyed. However, today the mosque is rebuilt and ready to proudly once again receive visitors.

  Koski Mehmed pasha’s mosque

  Completed in 1618, this mosque is the second biggest in Mostar. It is slightly smaller than Karadjoz-bey mosque but non the less of a similar character. The interior is 12,4x12,4 meters. It is placed just 150 meters north of the Old bridge on the very edge of the river bank. That position gives an unforgettable view over the Old town from the mosque’s minaret. This mosque too was almost destroyed in the recent war but is now rebuilt.