Moster, Herzegovina: Mostar is a city in Herzegovina, in the country’s south, 80 kilometres from the Bosnian capital Sarajevo. Mostar is the capital of the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton, in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and is the largest and most important city in the Herzegovina region.
Mostar, riverside, Destroyed houses of the Moster resulted from the Bosnian War and a sign from a restoration project funded by the Dutch government. The population was 130,000 in 1990, but after the Bosnian War in the early 1990s, it had fallen to 60,000. The main branches of industry are tobacco, bauxite and textiles. The primary road connection is the E73.
History of Mostar:
Mostar was founded in the 13th century and prospered in the Ottoman Empire for four centuries. Due to its strategic location, Mostar became a hub of traders travelling from the Adriatic Sea to the interior of the Balkans and vice versa. Mostar owes its name to when watchmen (“Mostari”) guarded against their towers who entered or left the city via the wooden bridge over the Neretva.
In 1566, work on a stone bridge to replace the shaky wooden bridge over the Neretva was completed. This bridge, the Stari Most or “Old Bridge”, was a masterpiece of Baroque Ottoman architecture created by the Turkish architect Mimar Hajrudin.
In 1878, Ottoman rule over Mostar came to an end. The city was regularly the target of attacks by Venetians, and the Ottoman army was weakened to such an extent that the region’s inhabitants revolted, partly because the dual monarchy Austria-Hungary successfully claimed the area during the Congress of Berlin in 1878. As a result, tensions in the area continued to rise. During the Austro-Hungarian period, significant investments were made in the area, such as constructing a railway line connecting Mostar with Dubrovnik and Sarajevo.
After World War I, Austria had to cede the city to the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, renamed the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in 1929. In 1939 Mostar was assigned to the Banovina of Croatia.
In 1941, Germany and Italy invaded Yugoslavia. Mostar was annexed to the Independent State of Croatia.
After World War II, the city was classified in the Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, a constituent state of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Dams were built in the Neretva to generate electricity.
In April 1992, the Bosnian War broke out in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which soon reached the city of Mostar. In July 1992, the Croats proclaimed their state in the area under the name of the Croatian Republic of Herceg-Bosna. Mostar was declared the capital of this state. It was planned that Herceg-Bosna would later become part of Croatia.
In the spring of 1993, fierce fighting broke out in Mostar between Croats and Bosniaks as part of the Croat-Bosniak War. The ‘Stari Most’ (old bridge) was destroyed in November of that year. In February 1994, the Croats and Bosniaks agreed to cease fighting, which was elaborated in the Washington Agreement. At the end of 1995, the War in Bosnia and Herzegovina ended with the Dayton Treaty.
