Mostar is a city and municipality in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the largest and one of the most important cities in the Herzegovina region and the center of the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton of theFederation. Mostar is situated on the Neretva river and is the fifth-largest city in the country. Mostar was named after the bridge keepers (natively: mostari) who in the medieval times guarded the Stari Most (Old Bridge) over Neretva river. The Old Bridge is one of the city's most recognizable landmarks.
In 1468 Mostar came under Ottoman rule and the urbanization of the settlement began. Following the unwritten oriental rule, the town was organized into two distinct areas: čaršija, the crafts and commercial centre of the settlement, and mahala or a residential area. In 1468 Mostar acquired the name Köprühisar, meaning fortress at the bridge, at the centre of which was a cluster of 15 houses.
The town was fortified between the years 1520 and 1566, and the wooden bridge was rebuilt in stone.[1] The stone bridge, the Old Bridge (Stari Most), was erected in 1566 on the orders of Suleiman the Magnificent, the Ottoman ruler.[5] Later becoming the city's symbol, the Old Bridge (Stari Most) is one of the most important structures of the Ottoman era and was built by Mimar Hayrudin, a student of the famous Ottoman architect Mimar Sinan.In the late 16th century, Mostar was the chief administrative city for the Ottoman Empire in the Herzegovina region.
The Stari Most bridge: 28 meters long and 20 meters high (90' by 64'), quickly became a wonder in its own time. The famous traveler Evliya Çelebi wrote in the 17th century that: the bridge is like a rainbow arch soaring up to the skies, extending from one cliff to the other. ...I, a poor and miserable slave of Allah, have passed through 16 countries, but I have never seen such a high bridge. It is thrown from rock to rock as high as the sky.
