Six interesting facts about the Old Bridge

Tour Guide Mostar team brings you our list of the 6 interesting facts about the Old Bridge in Mostar :

1. The city of Mostar is worldwide known for the many bridges and its name derives from the bridge keepers (mostari) who in the medieval times guarded the Stari Most (Old Bridge) over the Neretva.
2. The streets in the Old Town are locally called carsija and they were all made of stones from the local area.
3. The cobblestone pathway all across the Old Town and on the Old Bridge is called kaldrma. During the construction of the bridge, several kinds of morts were used dark red mort and pink mort. This kind of construction had the task of preventing the water penetration into the elements of the bridge and also to make the crossing of the bridge easier for the merchants and their animals.
4. The Old Bridge was built in 1566. and since then this town became an important strategic place and the base for Ottomans to conquer the rest of Balkan area. The bridge had to be established with the bridge towers while the pathways were made of cobblestones. In case you have missed it, see our post Kaldrma, the cobblestone pathways spreading through Mostar.
5.  On the east bank raises Tara Tower which was used as a deposit for ammunition in the Ottoman era. The Halebija Tower is on the west side. It was once the prison on its lower doors, and small barracks on its upper doors, also used as a look-out post.
6. The Old Bridge is also a place for special traditional jumping off the bridge in Neretva river. The practice dates back to the time the bridge was built, but the first recorded instance of someone diving off the bridge is from 1664. In 1968 a formal diving competition was inaugurated and held every summer.

It is traditional for the young men of the town to leap from the bridge into the Neretva. In case you have missed it, read our story – Traditional 450th Jumps from the Old Bridge.