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town in Bosnia and Herzegovina
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Mostar (pronounced [mǒstaːr] ⓘ) is a city and the administrative centre of Herzegovina-Neretva Canton of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, an entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the historical capital of Herzegovina.
Mostar is situated on the Neretva River and is the fifth-largest city in the country. It was named after the bridge keepers (mostari) who guarded the Stari Most (Old Bridge) over the Neretva during the Ottoman era. The Old Bridge, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, commissioned by Suleiman the Magnificent in the 16th century, is one of Bosnia and Herzegovina's most visited landmarks, and is considered an exemplary piece of Islamic architecture in the Balkans. Mostar was also the capital of the predominantly Croat proto-state known as the Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia during the Bosnian War.
Human settlements on the river Neretva, between Mount Hum and the Velež Mountain, have existed since prehistory, as witnessed by discoveries of fortified enceintes and cemeteries. Evidence of Roman occupation was discovered beneath the present town.
The name Mostar was first mentioned in a document from 1474, taking its name from the bridge-keepers (mostari); this refers to the existence of a wooden bridge which was used by traders, soldiers, and others. During this time, it was also the seat of a kadiluk (district with a regional judge). Since Mostar was on the trade route between the Adriatic and the mineral-rich regions of central Bosnia, the settlement began to spread to the right bank of the river.
Prior to 1474, the names of two towns, Nebojša and Cimski grad, appear in medieval historical sources, along with their later medieval territories and properties. In the early 15th century, the county (župa) of Večenike covered the site of present-day Mostar along the right bank of the Neretva, including the sites of Zahum, Cim, Ilići, Raštani, and Vojno. In 1408, this county belonged to Juraj Radivojević, who built Cim Fort (prior to 1443). Mostar is indirectly referred to in a 1454 charter of King Alfonso V of Aragon as Pons ("bridge"), for a bridge had already been built there. Prior to 1444, the Nebojša Tower was built on the left bank of the Neretva, which belonged to the late medieval county still known as Večenike or Večerić. The earliest documented reference to Mostar as a settlement dates back to 3 April 1452, when Ragusans from Dubrovnik wrote to their fellow countrymen in the service of Serbian Despot Đorđe Branković to say that Vladislav Hercegović had turned against his father Stjepan and occupied the town of Blagaj and other places, including “Duo Castelli al ponte de Neretua”.
In 1468, the region came under the rule of the Ottoman Empire and the urbanization of the settlement began. It was named Köprühisar, meaning fortress at the bridge, at the centre of which was a cluster of 15 houses. The town was organized into two distinct areas: čaršija, the crafts and commercial centre of the settlement, and mahala or a residential area.
The town was fortified between the years 1520 and 1566, and the wooden bridge was rebuilt in stone. In 1519 (Hijri 925), the settlement was recorded as a castle and both as Mostar and as Köprühisar, and Muslims and Christians inhabited it. It had four Muslim households and 85 Christian households. The stone bridge, the Old Bridge (Stari most), was erected in 1566 on the orders of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent and at 28 m (92 ft) long and 20 m (66 ft) high, quickly became a wonder in its own time. Later becoming the city's symbol, the Old Bridge was designed by Mimar Hayruddin, a student and apprentice of Ottoman architect Mimar Sinan. In the late 16th century, Köprühisar was one of the towns of the Sanjak of Herzegovina. In the 17th century, Turkish traveler and author Evliya Çelebi wrote of the bridge thus:
the bridge is like a rainbow arch soaring up to the skies, extending from one cliff to the other... I, a poor and miserable servant 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.
The first church in the city of Mostar, a Serbian Orthodox Church, was built in 1834 during Ottoman rule.
Austria-Hungary took control over Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1878 and ruled the region until the aftermath of World War I in 1918, when it became part of the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs and then Yugoslavia. During this period, Mostar was the main urban centre of Herzegovina. In 1881, the town became the seat of the Catholic diocese of Mostar-Duvno and, in 1939, it became a part of the Banovina of Croatia. During World War II, Mostar was annexed into the Nazi German fascist puppet state, the Independent State of Croatia.
During the period of Austro-Hungarian rule (1878–1918), Mostar's city council cooperated with the Austro-Hungarian administration to implement sweeping reforms in city planning: broad avenues and an urban grid were imposed on the western bank of the Neretva, and significant investments were made in infrastructure, communications, and housing. City administrators like Mustafa Mujaga Komadina were central players in these transformations, which facilitated growth and linked the eastern and western banks of the city. Noteworthy examples of Austro-Hungarian architecture include Hotel Neretva, the Municipality building, which was designed by the architect Josip Vancaš from Sarajevo, residential districts around the Rondo, and Gimnazija Mostar from 1902, designed by František Blažek.
After World War II, Mostar developed industries producing plastics, tobacco, bauxite, wine, aircraft and aluminium. Several dams (Grabovica, Salakovac, Mostar) were built in the region to harness the hydroelectric power of the Neretva. The city was a major industrial and tourist center and prospered economically during the time of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
When the German and Italian Zones of Influence were revised on 24 June 1942, Mostar fell in Zone II, administered civilly by Croatia but militarily by Italy. The boundary with Zone III was on Prenj.
Between 1948 and 1974, the industrial base was expanded with the construction of a metal-working factory, cotton textile mills, and an aluminum plant. Skilled workers, both men and women, entered the work force, and the social and demographic profile of the city was broadened dramatically; between 1945 and 1980, Mostar's population grew from 18,000 to 100,000.
Because Mostar's eastern bank was burdened by inadequate infrastructure, the city expanded on the western bank with the construction of large residential blocks. Local architects favored an austere modernist aesthetic, prefabrication, and repetitive modules. Commercial buildings in the functionalist style appeared on the historic eastern side of the city as well, replacing more intimate timber constructions that had survived since Ottoman times. In the 1970s and 1980s, a healthy local economy fueled by foreign investment spurred recognition and conservation of the city's cultural heritage. An economically sustainable plan to preserve the old town of Mostar was implemented by the municipality, which drew thousands of tourists from the Adriatic coast and invigorated the economy of the city. The results of this ten-year project earned Mostar an Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 1986.
According to the 1991 census, Mostar had 127,000 inhabitants with roughly an equal number of Bosniaks (34.6%) and Croats (34%), 18.8% Serbs, and 13.6% of those who declared themselves Yugoslavs or Others.
After Bosnia and Herzegovina declared independence from Yugoslavia in April 1992, the town was besieged by the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA), following clashes between the JNA and Croat forces. The Croats were organized into the Croatian Defence Council (HVO) and were joined by a sizable number of Bosniaks. The JNA artillery periodically shelled neighbourhoods outside of their control from early April.
On 7 June, the Croatian Army (HV) launched an offensive code-named Operation Jackal, the objective of which was to relieve Mostar and break the JNA siege of Dubrovnik. The offensive was supported by the HVO, which attacked the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS) positions around Mostar. By 12 June, the HVO secured the western part of the city, and by 21 June, the VRS was completely pushed out from the eastern part. Numerous religious buildings and most of the city's bridges were destroyed or severely damaged during the fighting. Among them were the Catholic Cathedral of Mary, Mother of the Church, the Franciscan Church and Monastery, the Bishop's Palace, and 12 out of 14 mosques in the city. After the VRS was pushed from the city, the Serbian Orthodox Žitomislić Monastery and the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity were demolished.
Throughout late 1992, tensions between Croats and Bosniaks increased in Mostar. In early 1993 the Croat–Bosniak War escalated and by mid-April 1993 Mostar had become a divided city with the western part dominated by HVO forces and the eastern part controlled by the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (ARBiH). Fighting broke out in May when both sides of the city came under intense artillery fire. The city was divided along ethnic lines, with a number of offensives taking place, resulting in a series of stalemates. The Croat–Bosniak conflict ended with the signing of the Washington Agreement in 1994, and the Bosnian War ended with the Dayton Agreement in 1995. Around 2,000 people died in Mostar during the war.
Two wars (Serb forces versus Bosniak and Croatian and Croat-Bosniak war) left Mostar physically devastated and ethno-territorially divided between a Croat-majority west bank (with ca. 55,000 residents) and a Bosniak-majority old City and east bank (with ca. 50,000 residents), with the frontline running parallel to the Neretva River. Most Serbs had fled the city.
Since the end of the wider war in 1995, great progress has been made in the reconstruction of the city of Mostar under the European Union Administration of the City of Mostar (EUAM). Over 15 million dollars has been spent on restoration.
A monumental project to rebuild the Old Bridge, which was destroyed during the Bosnian War by HVO, to the original design, and restore surrounding structures and historic neighbourhoods was initiated in 1999 and mostly completed by spring 2004. The money for this reconstruction was donated by Spain (who had a sizable contingent of peacekeeping troops stationed in the surrounding area during the conflict), the United States, Turkey, Italy, the Netherlands, and Croatia. A grand opening was held on 23 July 2004 under heavy security.
In parallel, the Aga Khan Trust for Culture and the World Monuments Fund, with funding provided by the World Bank, undertook a five-year-long restoration and rehabilitation effort to regenerate the most significant areas of historic Mostar, and particularly the urban tissue around the Old Bridge. Also in July 2004, the Stari Grad Agency was launched to operate and maintain the restored buildings, including the Old Bridge complex, and promote Mostar as a cultural and tourist destination.
In July 2005, UNESCO inscribed the Old Bridge and its closest vicinity onto the World Heritage List.
International reconstruction efforts were also aimed at the reunification of the divided city. The February 1996 Mostar Agreement led to the adoption of the Interim Statute of the city the same month, and to 1 year of EUAM, headed by former Bremen mayor Hans Koschnick, until early 1997.
After six years of implementation, in 2003, OHR Paddy Ashdown established an "international commission for reforming Mostar", whose final report noted how the HDZ/SDA power-sharing in Mostar had entrenched division and corruption, with "rampant parallelism" in administrative structures and usurpation of power by the municipalities over the City. A new Statute was negotiated, and finally imposed in February 2004 by OHR Paddy Ashdown.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Mostar”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.