How many borders can you meet in 100km? in the western Europe were disbanded and here ,in 100km I’ve passed 4.Here Montenegro ,few km away Croatia ,then Bosnia,then Croatia again,Bosnia again…at a moment I didn’t know in what country am i.
Talking about Bosnia ,the fact of travelling in a country wich was in a big war only few years ago, made my heart to beat faster.
Going forward,in the middle of this country,my heart's beatings become normal ,because I saw people like us,with theirs small agricultural machinery ,coming back from the work,small stores where you can find everything you want, from soap to building materials…then we crossed whole hectares of vineyards, nice and neat worked fields…then my eyes remained glued to a hill
where I saw a fortress and several old,surreal white houses and in their midst rises a minaret and a small mosque.Everything seemed so clean as if waited a head of state,but, no…is only the respect shown by these people to their faith and history
Going further into the landscape in which you can saw Christian and Muslim places of worship,one near other, I sat and wondered what these people had to divide, or rather who has managed to pit against each other on so long that to start war.
With these thoughts in mind I went into a city with a name so associated with war and suffering that I could hardly think of something else: Mostar
The images seen since the entrance of the city make my skin ants,even now .Almost all the buildings bears traces of bullets, of the rockets and other ammunition used in the war time.In downtown there are a lot of unrenovated buildings, partially demolished by rockets or bombs. Here everything is so real, and seeing the remnants of a war gone live in the middle of a Europe that wants to be sophisticated and modern, in the very 21st century ... you become full of an immeasurable frustration.
Modern posters and outdoor ads try to hide the walls,
We get going slowly through them in the old center ,walking on a street withch was the separating line between Christian and Muslim parts of city during the war
Mosques and minarets are everywhere, more often than any agglomeration of Christian churches ever seen by me.
and so many cemeteries ... Muslim, Christian ... too many and too full...i cannot took pictures
And so, slowly, filled with emotion ... I got to the bridge, THE BRIDGE who died in war and reborned after.
Formerly, the Stari Most was one of the most famous representative images of Bosnia, like construction which appears on stamps and postcards, with a proud nation. But the old bridge of the old Yugoslavia was destroyed by Croatian armed forces on November 9, 1993. There was clearly, to destroy the bridge,was an act of revenge, because in essence, the bridge had no military significance.
The Stari Most Bridge, a masterpiece of Ottoman Turkish architecture, was commissioned by Suleiman the Magnificent and designed by Mimar Hayruddin, a student of the famous Universities of Fine Arts Mimar Sinan. According to Atlas Obscura, construction began in 1557 and lasted nine years. After the war ended in Bosnia, the bridge was rebuilt, stone by stone, they were recovered by locals and experts of UNESCO even Neretva riverbed. Reopening the bridge took place on July 23, 2004.
People from here, however, it appears that they may forget how fast this war, but also want that others will not forget what happened .
in this pictures there are remains of croat rocket that destroyed StariMost in 1993
This is THE BRIDGE about I was telling you in the beginning ,and his story as I got it I put before you
But as life goes on and so my journey continues, and I will talk further, that there are still a lot to say
more pictures from Mostar :
http://picasaweb.google.com/ph91bks/5Mostar?feat=directlinkto be continued...
(PS sory for my english language mistakes...anyway i hope to be able to transmit you a big part of my feelings)
