Mostar

Mostar means "the city of bridges". Yet, there was not a bridge left in Mostar after the war. The Bosnian-Muslim part of Mostar on Eastern bank of Neretva river saw some of the worst of this war being shelled first by Serbs and then by Croats. Croats ultimately became responsible for bringing it down. Today Mostar is still literally under "foreign rule",: Mostar is policed by U.N. forces. Under its German mayor (Hans Koschnick, a former mayor of Bremen) the Old Bridge started to being rebuilt by the construction workers from Turkey and the stone masons from Croatia - just as the original was built 400 years ago. The New Old Bridge is opened to pedestrians, tourists, and courageous, youthful divers again in summer 2004 (read the feature story in the Architecture Week and the article in German newspapers about it).

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