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Stari Most in Mostar, Bosnia & Hercegovina

If you have read My Mission statement, you know why I love bridges. To me they are the most universal symbol of connection, of bringing people together and overcoming anything that may seperate us. From now on I plan to present to you pictures of bridges that I really love in places that I really love on my blog – ideally once a week. If you have a picture of a bridge that you would like to share with my readers as a guest post, feel free to contact me!

This is the Bridge that made me fall in love with Bridges.

Stari Most, Mostar, Bosnia and Hercegovina

When I first came to Mostar on a bus from Split in Croatia, it wasn’t a great start. The fifty year old bald bus driver made a pass at me, I didn’t find the hostel for an hour, and when I did, I was so relieved I started crying and had an asthma attack. But none of it mattered the minute I set foot into the old town.

I am in love with Mostar, with its complicated history and its cultural and ethnical difficulties, with the color of the Neretva river that is unlike any I had seen before I came there, with its people that have, or so it seems, never lost hope and radiate with the knowledge that it is a great gift to be alive, with its overflowing beauty and sadness and complexity and joy.

The river isn’t the line that divides the city into the Bosniak (muslim) and the Croat (catholic) halves of the city. The old frontline is, and it’s a few hundred meters to the right of this picture. I still feel the Old Bridge, or in Bosnian Stari Most, has the potential to connect the two halves. I learned from the locals that everyone loves the Bridge. It was destroyed by Croat forces in the Balkan wars in the 1990s, and was remodelled and finished in 2004. It is the heart and soul of Mostar, the city carries the Bridge in its name – Mostar means Bridgekeeper. People from all sides and backgrounds identify with the Bridge in this city – through their segregated schooling of Bosniak and Croat kids, through their different football clubs, even now that the Croat side is building their own bus terminal as not to have to use the one on the Bosniak side.

The Bridge brings them together as one.

6 Kommentare

  1. Beautiful bridge and beutiful story! Waiting forward to reading more posts on bridges- interesting idea!

    • bridgekeeper

      Januar 18, 2013 at 11:03 am

      I’m glad you like it, Aga! Bridges have fascinated me ever since I travelled in the Balkans. But really if you think about it, they make imprtant landmarks anywhere. Tower Bridge in London. Golden Gate Bridge in SF. Galata Bridge in Istanbul. There’s much material out there 🙂 I hope you stop by again for more bridges!

  2. It is indeed a beautiful bridge. We can only hope that as the bridge unites the two banks it can help over time to unite the people.

    • bridgekeeper

      Januar 18, 2013 at 11:05 am

      That is the dream. It is so hard for me to comprehend the whole story, and I have a long way to go. I think a revisit to Mostar is in order 🙂 thank you for stopping by my blog and taking the time to leave such a beautiful and poetic comment!

  3. Will be back there in only a week. Can’t wait.

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