The Destruction of the Old Bridge in Mostar: A Rupture in Collective Urban Space and Life

Abstract

This article examines the destruction of the sixteenth-century pedestrian bridge of the city of Mostar, the Old Bridge, during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina (1992–95) as a substantial disruption to the city’s urban fabric. The bridge was the symbol of the city, its most recognizable landmark, and a monument that linked two sides of the Neretva River into an integral urban unit. Reflecting on the repercussions of such violence in the context of the image of the city, I address the identity of the bridge, and the social relations inscribed in the materiality of the surrounding urban space. Due to the violence of the war and continued interethnic conflict, the meaning of the bridge changed; the construction of a new bridge on the same site was unable to repair breaches in the social relationships between Mostar’s communities. Architectural responses to rupture in the divided and contested city are exemplified in Mostar, an urban setting that has been ravaged by war, trauma, and ethno-nationalism.