Mostar, Herzegovina

Mostar is located halfway between Sarajevo and Dubrovnik, and has therefore been an important city for traders throughout the centuries.  The old town here has an eastern flavor, influenced by the Ottomans, although the shopkeepers of today seem to be very "western."

Mostar was heavily damaged during the Balkan war of the '90s.  There has been a lot of rebuilding, but there are still a lot of destroyed buildings waiting for investors to come in, knock them down, and put up something new.  Whereas Sarajevo has cleaned up most of its war damage, Mostar remains a battered reminder of the horrors of war.

We toured the old town of Mostar this afternoon.  It is situated along the turquoise waters of the Neretva River.  We had lunch behind the old tannery (no longer a working tannery!), which is right above the river with beautiful views of the old town, the river, and the historic Turkish bridge.

Although we had fall weather in Sarajevo this morning, temps are back in the 90s here in Mostar, which has "Adriatic" weather.

On the way we drove past this inland lake.  The hydro plant on the lake supplies 20% of the electricity for the country.  Unfortunately the rest is supplied by coal plants - which do not use any pollution devices - resulting a perpetual "haze."

Here is one side of the "old city."  The city did not really start to grow until a bridge was built spanning the river in the 11th century.  After that it grew rapidly.  Most of these buildings date from the 15th century Ottoman period.

The old town spans both sides of the river, running back about 4 blocks.  Most of the buildings are used for restaurants, museums, and shops.

Sandy got to try the local beer for lunch.

Here is the "famous" bridge.  It was originally a wooden one (11th century) but was replaced with a stone one in about 1533.  The town gets its name from the Turkish word mostari meaning gatekeepers.  There were gate houses located on each side of the bridge where they stayed.  The bridge was destroyed in the 1993 shelling of the town.  It was rebuilt and rededicated in about 2001.

Walking around the center of town we came across this bombed out shell.  It used to be a 9 level shopping center but was bombed in 1992.

These bombed out shells are everywhere in the town.  The people in Mostar are rather angry about the central government's focus on Sarajevo's needs.  In Sarajevo we saw a few shell marks in buildings but nothing like we see here.  This town seems to be getting the left overs.

We are both starting to heal!  I can now manage to hobble around pretty good (I sprained my ankle on the cobblestone about a  week ago) and Sandy's leg has stopped bleeding and is "only" sore and black and blue!  Hurrah!!