the Old Bridge of Mostar

Last crawled date: 1 year, 11 months ago

The Old Bridge of Mostar (Stari Most) was constructed in 1566 by Mimar Hajruddin, a pupil of the famous architect Sinan (considered as the father of classic Ottoman architecture). Construction began in 1557 and took nine years. It consisted of a humpbacked arch with an opening of 27 metres, and was 4 metres wide and 30 metres long. The bridge was flanked by two fortified towers, the Halebija Tower on the right bank and the Tara Tower on the left bank, both dating from to the 17th century. Certain associated technical issues remain a mystery: how the scaffolding was erected, how the stone was transported from one bank to the other, how the scaffolding remained sound during the long building period. In 1993, during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina the bridge was completely destroyed, falling into river Neretva. After the war ended, plans were raised to reconstruct the bridge as a symbol of peace and ethnic harmony, literally bridging the two sides of the divided city. Through international financial aid managed by the World Bank, UNESCO established an International Committee of Experts to reconstruct the old bridge and the old town of Mostar. It was decided to build a bridge as similar as possible as the original, using the same technology and materials. Work on the reconstruction, in line with 16th century building methods, has been finalized in 2002. In July 2005, the Old Bridge area of the Old City of Mostar was inscribed on the World Heritage List. #Bosnia_and_Herzegovina #Mostar #world_heritage_site