Mostar: the rebuilt bridge over the Neretva

Built in 1566 by Ottoman architect Mimar Hayruddin and rebuilt in 2004 after wartime destruction, Stari Most is still today the stage for traditional dives by young locals from over twenty meters high into the Neretva.

Walking down among the shops of the Old Bazaar, craftsmen still work copper according to Ottoman techniques handed down through generations.

Climbing the minaret of the Koski Mehmed Pasha Mosque from the sixteenth century, you observe from above the entire arch of the bridge and the course of the river below.

Toward evening, museums dedicated to the 1990s war, scattered near the bridge, remind how much the city's reconstruction has also been an attempt at reconciliation among its communities.

The divers of the Stari Most train for years before their first real jump: the tradition, centuries old, is today also a small source of income thanks to tourist tips while witnessing from the bridge.

The reconstruction of the bridge, funded by several countries and completed in 2004, used wherever possible the same techniques and local stone of the original Ottoman design.