The hook
A graceful Ottoman stone bridge arching high over a green river, blown up during the war and rebuilt stone by stone, where young men still dive from the parapet into the cold water below.
01Why it's worth it
The Stari Most, the "old bridge," was built by the Ottomans in the 16th century, a single soaring arch over the Neretva that gave the town its name and its identity. In 1993 it was deliberately shelled into the river during the Bosnian war, a loss that stood for the wider tearing-apart of the region. It was painstakingly rebuilt from recovered and matching stone and reopened in 2004, and the tradition of local men diving nearly thirty metres from its crown into the river continues, now partly for the tourists who gather to watch. The cobbled old town around it is small and heavily geared to day-trippers from the Croatian coast, so it can feel like a bridge with a gift-shop bazaar attached. Come early or late, and read the bridge's destruction and return as the real story.
02How to experience it
See the bridge early morning or evening when the coach crowds are gone, and watch the divers if you're there midday in summer. Look for the war's traces in the town beyond the bazaar strip, and use Mostar as a base for the springs and falls of Herzegovina nearby.