The Old Bridge, Mostar

The Old Bridge in Mostar is undoubtedly the most beautiful and in the world the most famous building from the Ottoman period in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It was built above the Neretva River in 1566 while construction began in 1557, during the most famous Ottoman sultan Suleiman and Kanuni. The arch is almost 29 meters long and 20 meters high. It is characterized by its thin and elegant shape: the profile of the bridge was so thin and high above the water that it was difficult for many to imagine that it was possible to make such a building out of huge stone blocks. The specific side of this bridge is that it is not connected to any other style and therefore represents a unique building in the world.

An interesting fact is that before the construction of this bridge over Neretva there was another bridge, which was first mentioned in a letter from the Dubrovnik Council stating that Vladislav Hercegović, son of Herceg Stjepan, had gone rogue from his father and took Blagaj from him, two towers and a bridge on neretva. When the Ottomans occupied this area in 1466, this town became more and more significant and larger. It is not known exactly when this bridge was built, but it is known that it served until the end of the reign of Sultan Mehmed II (1451–1481), when a new bridge was built. Still, this new bridge was of poor quality, as was the previous one. Celeb Celebi, an Ottoman travel writer, described this bridge as saying it was built of very poor wooden material, with worn chains and that when crossing it was all shaking, saying he was "dying" of fear crossing over it.

On the basis of this, it is assumed that the citizens of Mostar asked the then sultan Suleiman I to build them a new bridge, but this time from stone. Hajrudin Mimar, a disciple of the greatest Ottoman architect of all time, Mimar Sinana, was appointed as the main architect of the bridge. Legend has it that Hajrudin fled Mostar the day before the scaffolding was erected, out of fear of Sultan Suleiman I, who threatened that Hajrudin would be killed if the arch of the bridge did not endure. Since there is no record that Hajrudin has ever seen his bridge, the construction project was handed over to the local architect, Mehmed Karađoz. Construction of the bridge began on October 24, 1557. For the construction of the bridge it was necessary to collect 456 blocks of stone and 300 000 akči (money). The stone for the construction of the bridge was extracted five kilometers south of the city. The workers were from popovo kadiluk and from the surroundings of Dubrovnik. It was officially completed after nine years of construction. In history it is also called "New", "Sulejmanov", Veliki" and "Stari". During the last defensive-liberation war, the bridge was demolished by the Croatian Defence Council, on 9 November 1993. It was renovated in 2004 and in July 2005 it was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.