There is something about the Balkans that stirs up feelings and emotions you didn’t know you had.  The first time I visited Mostar, I saw a city that inspired me. Of course Mostar has inspired writers, painters and artists from the former Yugoslavia for generations.  Now the secret is out and foreign artists are increasingly visiting Mostar to renew their creativity and passion for their art.

Sadly beautiful, Mostar is a city like no other. Mediterranean because of its weather, the lush mountains surrounding it, the beautiful Neretva river flowing through it and the way it makes you feel. But also deeply Balkan.  Most means bridge in the local language and the city was named Mostar because of the breathtaking Old Bridge built by the Ottomans in the 1500s and visited by thousands of tourists every year.  Mostar’s famous Old Bridge, protected by UNESCO until it was destroyed in the 1992-95 war, was re-built and re-opened last summer amidst a hail of tourists and VIPs.  The bridge defines the city. Destroyed in Bosnia’s bitter ethnic war, the Old Bridge was the connection between the Ottoman old town or carsija and the newly-built, modern side of the town.  During the war, the city was divided into “Croat side” and “Muslim side”, the division further deepened by the destruction of the Old Bridge. The re-opening of the Old Bridge was a watershed and marked a new life for the city and its inhabitants. While the scars of the war are slow to heal, Mostar remains one of the most beautiful cities in the Balkans with an old town that dates back almost 500 years and an exotic mix of Ottoman and Mediterranean architecture that makes the city unique.

In fact, the two “sides” of Mostar, completely different from each other in every way, give the city a charm and character that is strangely appealing.  Tourists will marvel at the Old World/New World feel of Mostar and way that one simultaneously experiences East and West in the same moment. Mostar is home to beautiful, hundred year old mosques and cafes lining the river full of young people.