Stari Most

Stari Most, also known as Mostar Bridge, is a rebuilt 16th-century Ottoman bridge in the city of Mostar in Bosnia and Herzegovina that crosses the river Neretva and connects the two parts of the city. On 9 November 1993 Stari Most collapsed due to shelling by the Croatian Defence Council (HVO) during the Croat–Bosniak War. Subsequently, a project was set in motion to reconstruct it; the rebuilt bridge opened on 23 July 2004. In 2017, the appeal court deemed that destruction was legal since the bridge was a military target as the opposing Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina used it as a military supply line. The Old bridge is considered an exemplary piece of Balkan Islamic architecture. It was commissioned by Suleiman the Magnificent in 1557, and designed by Mimar Hayruddin, a student and apprentice of the architect Mimar Sinan. Characteristics The bridge spans the Neretva river in the old town of Mostar, the city to which it gave the name. The city is the fifth-largest in the country; it is the center of the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the unofficial capital of Herzegovina. The Stari Most is hump-backed, wide and long, and dominates the river from a height of . Two fortified towers protect it: the Halebija tower on the northeast and the Tara tower on the southwest, called "the bridge keepers" (natively mostari). Instead of foundations, the bridge has abutments of limestone linked to wing walls along the waterside cliffs. Measuring from the summer water level of , abutments are erected to a height of , from which the arch springs to its high point. The start of the arch is emphasized by a molding in height. The rise of the arch is .