Mostar

Mostar occupies a narrow gorge where the emerald currents of the Neretva River carve a path between rocky slopes. As the administrative centre of the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, it also bears the legacy of its older status as the historic capital of Herzegovina. Today, the city ranks fifth in population within the country, yet its compact urban fabric belies a complexity of heritage, conflict and renewal that reaches back centuries.

From the Ottoman conquest of the mid-15th century onward, Mostar’s identity became inseparable from the Old Bridge, or Stari Most. Commissioned by Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent and completed in 1566, the single-arched stone span measured 28.7 m across and rose 21 m above the summer waterline. Its perfectly semicircular vault, crafted of dressed limestone blocks with an infill of fractured stone, embodied an experimental confidence. Local legend credits Hajrudin, a pupil of the great architect Sinan, with its design; in reality, it stood among the Ottoman Balkans’ most accomplished civil-engineering feats. The bridge’s flanking towers—Halebija and Tara—once housed both guardians and munitions, their firmly coursed masonry underscoring the martial as well as the civic purpose of the crossing.

Beyond the bridge, Mostar’s medieval antecedents left only fragments. The Hercegova Tower, a lone remnant of early fortifications, perches above the eastern bank. Across the river, Ottoman ambitions reshaped the town. Administrators of the newly established sanjak invested in mosque complexes that combined prayer halls, Koranic schools, markets and soup kitchens, embedding both faith and social welfare within a single precinct. The Cejvan Cehaj Mosque, dating to 1552, stands as the oldest surviving Muslim house of worship. Nearby, the Kriva Ćuprija—its diminutive “Sloping Bridge” of 1558—prefigured the Old Bridge itself, serving both as a trial of technique and as a link between what would become the commercial quarters.

Over three centuries, the townscape absorbed successive layers of influence. Late Ottoman houses employed a distinctive domestic layout: a ground-floor hall, a paved courtyard, and an upper residential storey opening onto a veranda. The Muslibegović House, erected some three centuries ago, remains perhaps the finest example, its four-storey plan enclosing separate women’s and men’s courtyards and revealing Mediterranean influences in its double-arched entrance. Seven of the original thirteen 16th- and 17th-century mosques fell victim to ideological demolitions or warfare in the 20th century; the Karađoz Bey Mosque (1557) persists, as does the Koski Mehmed Paša Mosque (1617), the latter rebuilt after wartime ruin and today open to visitors who climb its minaret for an expansive view of the Old City.

The turn of the 20th century ushered in Austro-Hungarian rule, bringing neoclassical and Secessionist public buildings to Mostar’s streets. The Orthodox Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, completed in 1873 as a gift from Sultan Abdul Aziz, and the Franciscan church in the Italianate style assert Christian presence alongside mosques and the early 20th-century synagogue, now repurposed as a theatre following World War II damage. Inns, merchants’ shops, tanneries and fountains bear witness to a once-thriving craft economy; many storefronts still display copperware, bronze carvings and pomegranate motifs—the latter the emblem of Herzegovina—while the Kujundžiluk bazaar retains its name of “goldsmiths’ street.”

All these elements found recognition in 2005, when UNESCO inscribed the Old Bridge Area of the Old City of Mostar as a World Heritage Site, citing its cultural significance and the “outstanding example of Balkan Islamic architecture in the 16th century.” The designated area covers 7.6 ha, with a buffer zone extending to 47.6 ha.

War’s shadow, however, intruded with devastating force. During the 1992–1995 conflict that shattered Yugoslavia, Mostar was the most heavily bombarded city in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Air strikes and artillery battered civilian quarters, cultural landmarks and the spine of the urban fabric. In November 1993, the Stari Most collapsed under shellfire from forces of the Croatian Defence Council. Seven mosques, houses and bridges succumbed to the fighting and ethnic strife, leaving the city divided along new fault lines.

Reconstruction began in earnest with international backing. Stone blocks salvaged from the riverbed provided original material for the painstaking rebuild. By 2004—almost eleven years after the bridge fell—the Old Bridge rose again, its echo of 16th-century lines restored. A museum beside the crossing, inaugurated in 2006, documents both the medieval foundations uncovered beneath the plaza and the modern engineering methods employed in the reconstruction.

In the aftermath of war, Mostar’s demography shifted sharply. Prior to 1992, the city had been among the nation’s most ethnically diverse. Today, Croats form a plurality in the western districts (48.4 per cent of the municipal population), Bosniaks predominate in the east (44.1 per cent), and Serbs account for just over 4 per cent. Voter rolls from 2008 reveal that three western, Croat-majority districts registered some 53,917 electors, whereas the eastern, Bosniak-majority side tallied 34,712. The urban divide endures in schooling, cultural institutions and public space, though shared heritage sites draw tourists across former front lines.

Modern Mostar rests on more than memory and monuments. Its economy leans on aluminium and metal manufacturing, banking, and telecommunications. Aluminij Industries, once a pillar of Yugoslav metallurgy, remains a leading exporter and generates roughly €40 million annually for the municipal treasury. Among Bosnia and Herzegovina’s three largest banks, one is headquartered in Mostar. The city also hosts the national electric utility (Elektroprivreda HZHB), a postal company (Hrvatska pošta Mostar) and a major telecom operator (HT Eronet). These public-sector enterprises, together with private small and medium firms, bolster a business climate that recovered notably since the war.

Each spring, the International Economic Fair convenes local firms and foreign delegations, reviving a commercial tradition that once underpinned Herzegovina’s prosperity. Plans for wind-power installations and the expanding Ćiro Trail—a 157-km cycle route that follows the defunct narrow-gauge railway toward Dubrovnik—point to diversification in energy and tourism. Three hydroelectric dams on the city’s outskirts already supply renewable power.

Climatically, Mostar lies at the confluence of Mediterranean warmth and inland humidity. Under the Köppen classification, it falls into a modified Cfa regime: winters are cool and damp, summers hot and relatively dry. January averages near 5 °C, July around 26 °C, and temperatures can surge above 40 °C; the record high stands at 46.2 °C, measured in 1901 and unmatched elsewhere in the country. Sunshine prevails from June through September, earning Mostar the title of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s sunniest city with some 2,291 annual hours. Snowfall is rare and seldom lingers.

Beyond its core monuments, Mostar offers layers of history for the attentive visitor. The World War II Partisan Memorial Cemetery, designed in organic contours of stone and water by Bogdan Bogdanović, unites natural greenery with solemn architecture. Early Christian remains at Cim, Ottoman hamams, the Jewish memorial cemetery and a clock tower of Ottoman origin attest to a multiplicity of faiths and eras. The Metropolitan’s Palace (1908) and the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity speak to Austro-Hungarian influence. The Crooked Bridge, its slender span a lesser echo of Stari Most, nestles among merchants’ quarters.

Excursions into Herzegovina extend the city’s narrative. Nearby lie the pilgrimage shrine at Međugorje, the Tekija dervish monastery in Blagaj beneath a sheer cliff, and the medieval stronghold of Počitelj with its Ottoman-era fortifications. Waterfalls at Kravica, the Roman villa rustica of Mogorjelo, the prehistoric tumuli at Stolac and the Vjetrenica cave in the karst near Popovo Polje offer snapshots of human and geological time. A short drive brings one to Hutovo Blato nature park or the Adriatic coast via Neum.

Mostar’s arteries of access reflect its confluence of tradition and transition. Bus stations on both eastern and western flanks connect the city to Sarajevo, Zagreb and Dubrovnik, as well as to regional centres across Bosnia and Herzegovina. Trains link twice daily to the inland capital. By road, the A1 motorway from Croatia leads to the Bijača border crossing, then onward through a scenic Neretva valley route toward Sarajevo. Flights at Mostar International Airport—7.5 km south of the station—connect regularly to Zagreb, Belgrade, Istanbul and seasonal Italian destinations. Local shuttle buses serve the airport for flights to Croatia, though travellers often rely on taxis for wider connections.

Within the Old Town, cobbled streets ascend toward cafés and craft workshops. Artisans still hammer copper platters, paint miniature depictions of Stari Most and carve pomegranate-leaf motifs into wood. The Old Bazaar, Kujundžiluk, sustains its character as an enclave of goldsmiths and painters. In summer’s long light, divers from the Mostar Diving Club launch themselves from the bridge into the swirling river below, earning coins thrown by onlookers and preserving a centuries-old rite of courage.

Mostar is not a city of easy contrasts. Its graceful arches and ornate façades conceal fault lines of memory and ongoing efforts at reconciliation. Yet each stone bears witness both to the violence of rupture and to the patience of restoration. In its narrow streets and sunlit squares, the flow of the Neretva remains a constant counterpoint: at once a force of renewal and a mirror to the city’s myriad faces.