Bosnia and Herzegovina

May 7

Happy Mother’s Day to all of our moms, sisters, sister-in-laws, aunts, and mom friends who are reading this! We love you all and are so grateful for all you do!

Now back to business. Since we had a few days in the area, we decided to take a day trip to Bosnia and Herzegovina. We had an early morning pickup by our driver, Marco, and joined another five tourists for the trip.

What I didn’t realize (although I would have if I had looked a bit harder at a map) is that Bosnia and Herzegovina actually has a small portion of the coast line, bordered on both sides by Croatia. So when we drove up the coast, we actually left Croatia, entered B&H, and then re-entered Croatia to continue our drive to Medjugorje. I had never heard of this town, but mom had and was very excited to visit. Medjugorie is a popular Catholic pilgrim site because of visions of the Virgin Mary to six local children in 1981.

The town has a complex history, as much of the country does. In the Second World War, 66 Franciscans were killed in Herzegovina. Some of these 66 were burned to death in a garden outside a monastery in Medjugorie. This was the place where, in 1981, the children began reporting the apparitions of Mary. She called for prayer, conversion, fasting, penance and peace. Two of these children, now adults, still claim to receive messages from the Virgin Mary every month.

In 1981, Medjugorie was a part of communist Yugoslavia. Once state authorities got wind of the reports of the apparitions, they forbid pilgrims from visiting. The parish priest was also imprisoned for a “nationalist plot”. I’m not sure exactly what that means, but I think he ignored the state’s requests to squash this pilgrimage site.

Medjugorie is now Europe’s third most important apparition site with over 1 million people visiting each year. Some visitors have reported visual phenomena related to the sun, including the sun spinning in the sky, changing color, and having figures such as hearts and crosses around the sun. Since people are not the brightest, some visitors have walked away with eye damage trying to seek such an experience. During peak pilgrimage season, they celebrate huge outdoor masses at this altar.

The Catholic Church, after many years of saying “who knows” and an extensive investigation, is now saying that they believe the apparitions from 1981, but have no comment on the more recent visions.

After a short visit, we continued our trip to Mostar, the fifth largest city in B&H. Mostar was named after the mostari or “bridge keepers” who guarded the Stari Most (Old Bridge) over the Neretva river. The old bridge was built in the 16th century by the Ottomans and is one of B&H’s most recognizable landmarks.

As with most cities in Europe, there is a ton of history. Although the city had been there much longer, Mostar had its name by 1474 relating to a wooden bridge that was used by traders, soldiers and travelers. This bridge made Mostar a trade route between the Adriatic and central Bosnia which was rich in minerals to trade.

The bridge was rebuilt in 1566 in stone, as ordered by the Sultan, and designed by Mimar Hayruddin, a student of a famous Ottoman architect. Apparently, it was made clear to him that if he did not succeed, he would lose his head for it. Hayruddin practiced his structure on a nearby crossing before starting the main bridge. That first bridge is still standing today although somehow we didn’t get a picture of it.

The finished product, at 92 feet long and 66 feet high, was a wonder at the time. Then stuff happened: Austria-Hungary took control over B&H in 1878 until after WWI in 1918 when it became part of the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs. Then it became part of Yugoslavia, at which point Mostar was recognized as the unofficial capital of Herzegovina.

After Bosnia and Herzegovina declared independence from Yugoslavia in April 1992, Mostar was besieged by the Yugoslav People’s Army, or the JNA. The Croatians and Bosniaks retook the city after a few months, but numerous religious buildings and most of the bridges were destroyed during the fighting. Bosniaks, per google, are Bosnian Muslims. Croatians are mostly Roman Catholic. Later that year, infighting began between the Catholics and the Muslims within Mostar and in early 1993 the Croat-Bosniak War escalated and divided the city along ethnic lines. During this war within a war, they basically stopped fighting Yugoslavia and just fought amongst themselves. In November 1993, the Stari Most bridge was destroyed. The Croat-Bosniak conflict ended in 1994, so then the people of Mostar got back to fighting against Yugoslavia together. The Bosnian War ended with the Dayton Agreement in 1995. Roughly 2000 people died in Mostar during the war. I’m not sure how many of those were from the Bosnian War and how many were from the Croat-Bosniak War.

There are still some remains of the damage done during the war, although most of the city has been rebuilt.

We started our visit to the city with the Franciscan Church of Sts. Peter and Paul. Apparently a church was built on this site in 1866 and was destroyed in 1992 during the war. It was rebuilt in 2000.

I’m not sure from google research if this was fully up and running since 2000 and then was just gutted again to renovate or if it has just taken this long to construct.

Then I got to high five this pope on an egg. I think it’s a pope at least. Francis? JP2? We weren’t sure…

Our guide then took us to the grounds of a Jewish Synagogue. The Synagogue is no longer there, but is scheduled to be rebuilt. Jews came to B&H during the Spanish Inquisition to escape persecution. When they arrived over 500 years ago, Bosnia was one of the few areas in Europe that welcomed Jews. Down from the high of 14-22 thousand in 1941, it is estimated that 1000 Jews still live in Bosnia and Herzegovina. During the Ottoman Empire, Jews had autonomy and were able to buy real estate, build synagogues, and trade. They were granted full equality under Ottoman law by 1856.

The Bosnian Jewish community remained prominent after the formation of Yugoslavia. During the Second World War, the Nazis invaded Yugoslavia in April 1941 and persecution of Serbs, Jews and Romani people began. In September 1941, deportation of Jews (and Serbs) began, mostly to Auschwitz or concentration camps in Croatia. By the end of the war, 10,000 of the 14,000 Bosnian Jews were murdered.

However, our guide was excited to tell us that the Bosnian Muslim population did helped many Bosnian Jews escape. Mostar now has a very small Jewish population, but the town is hopeful that with the building of a new synagogue, Mostar’s proud tradition of multi ethnicity can be fully restored.

Our guide pointed out that if you look look in a straight line you have the Catholic Church, then the site of the Synagogue, then a Mosque Minaret and then an Eastern Orthodox Church (which is what most Serbs identify as) all in a row. He then said in regard to having the Synagogue rebuilt to complete this line through the city: “Wouldn’t that be beautiful?”. It was very touching.

After entering old town, we saw the “practice” bridge and walked through the market before heading over to the main attraction: Stari Most. The bridge is truly beautiful.

There is a tradition of men diving off the bridge in exchange for cash, but we didn’t see anyone jump.

Views from the bridge:

After crossing, we entered a shop and watched a video about the bridge during the Bosnia war. The shop sold gorgeous artwork, tea sets and platters:

The video, however, was heartbreaking to watch both the damage to the city and to the bridge. I definitely need to get a book on the Bosnian War and the Yugoslavia War. Too much that I do not know about it.

We walked around the market a bit more before heading to a late lunch overlooking the bridge. A lot of the goods being sold reminded us of things we had seen in Greece, Turkey and Morocco, which makes since since Mostar was part of a trade route.

And, of course, gelato before we headed back to the bus to return to Dubrovnik:

On the way back we stopped by a random castle and did a quick hike up for these spectacular views:

And then we were back to Croatia (then back to Bosnia and Herzegovina then back again to Croatia).

It was a great day trip and we were really thrilled that we got to learn so much about the country and the area in such a short period of time. But as it is with most things in life, the more you know, the more you realize what you don’t know.