page_title: Architecture of Mostar
section_title: Collapse of Yugoslavia
hierarchical_section_title: Architecture of Mostar / Collapse of Yugoslavia
caption_attribution_description: The old Bridge in Mostar, in rebuild, June 2003, picture taken by myself
context_page_description: Centuries before the Ottoman conquest of Bosnia, Mostar was a small hamlet situated at a strategic crossing of the Neretva river. Its hinterlands consisted of a broad agricultural plain on the west bank and steep terraces on the east bank surrounded by barren mountains. Mostar was a representative multi-ethnic and multi-cultural settlement in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which had possessed an independent political identity since the twelfth century. By the fifteenth century, most of the lands that would later become part of modern Yugoslavia were inhabited primarily by peoples of the same south Slavic heritage.
context_section_description: During the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe, ultra-nationalist leaders in the republics enjoyed political ascendancy which would have been unthinkable under Tito. Alija Izetbegović formed a new government in Bosnia, which included the representation of Bosnian-Muslim, Bosnian-Croat and Bosnian-Serb parties. In 1992, 64% of the Bosnian electorate voted for a state “of equal citizens and nations of Muslims, Serbs, Croats and others”. Days later, Sarajevo was under a siege that would last more than three years. During this same period, Bosnian Serb military and paramilitary forces pursued a campaign of terror and ethnic cleansing in Bosnia. Mostar was overwhelmed by Serbian military units, and shelled from the surrounding hills during May and June 1992. Nearly 100,000 people were forced from their homes and over 1,600 died. Many historic buildings in the old city, including most of the city's important mosques, were heavily damaged. Even the Old Bridge was hit by a shell.
  A Croat-Muslim Federation was able to expel Serbian forces by June 1992. Shortly thereafter, local Muslims and Croatians became adversaries due to competing territorial ambitions and ongoing political instability. The Bosnian-Croatian Militia (the HVO) took possession of the West Bank of the Neretva and a new round of hostilities in what was termed the “second battle of Mostar” ensued. More than 3,000 people were killed, and another 10,000 Bosniaks and Serbs were sent to concentration camps. On November 9, 1993, the bridge's springline was hit at point-blank range by a Croatian tank shell and Mostar's 400-year-old symbol fell into the cold Neretva River, provoking deep sadness for citizens throughout the city for whom the Bridge had represented everything permanent and inviolable.
caption: The Old Bridge undergoing reconstruction in June 2003.
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