The Bridge That Refused to Stay Broken

How a 16th-century Ottoman arch above the Neretva River became Time Out’s most beautiful bridge in the world

In November 2023, the global lifestyle publication Time Out named Stari Most – the Old Bridge of Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina – the most beautiful bridge in the world, placing it above iconic rivals including the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Brooklyn Bridge.

The recognition was widely celebrated, but for those who know the bridge’s history, it carried a weight that a simple ranking cannot fully convey.

Built in an Age of Empires

The story of Stari Most begins in 1557, when Suleiman the Magnificent, at the height of Ottoman power, commissioned the construction of a bridge over the fast-flowing Neretva River in the provincial town of Mostar.

The task was entrusted to the young architect Mimar Hayruddin, a student of the legendary Sinan – the man who built the Suleymaniye Mosque in Istanbul.

What Hayruddin designed was audacious for its era. A single graceful arch of pale limestone, spanning 29 metres across the Neretva and rising nearly 25 metres above the water at its crown.

No multi-span structure, no heavy piers interrupting the flow of the river – just one sweeping, unbroken curve, as if drawn by a single confident hand.

The bridge was completed in 1566 after nine years of construction. According to historical accounts, Hayruddin was so uncertain it would hold on the day the wooden scaffolding was removed that he reportedly prepared his funeral shroud in advance. But the bridge held. And it kept holding for the next 427 years.

“The bridge was considered so daring that its architect reportedly prepared his funeral shroud on the day the scaffolding came down. It held for 427 years.”

Stari Most at a Glance
▪ Built: 1557–1566, commissioned by Suleiman the Magnificent
▪ Architect: Mimar Hayruddin, student of the legendary Ottoman architect Sinan
▪ Span: 29 metres • Height above river: 21-25 metres
▪ Material: Tenelija – a locally quarried pale limestone unique to the Mostar region
▪ UNESCO World Heritage Site: inscribed 2005
▪ Time Out World’s Most Beautiful Bridge: 2023

Destroyed, Recovered, Rebuilt

On 9 November 1993, during the Bosnian War, Croatian forces shelled Stari Most until it collapsed into the Neretva. The bridge that had survived earthquakes, floods, and four centuries of conflict was gone in a morning.

The destruction was widely condemned as an act of deliberate cultural erasure. Mostar had been a city defined by its bridge – the word “mostar” itself derives from the Bosnian word for bridge-keeper. To destroy the bridge was to assault the city’s identity.

But almost immediately, there were those determined to rebuild it. Local divers retrieved blocks of the original tenelija limestone from the riverbed.

International organisations, including UNESCO, the World Bank, and the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, contributed expertise and funding.

The reconstruction was painstaking: traditional Ottoman stonecutting techniques were revived, original dimensions were followed precisely, and the same pale local limestone was used wherever possible.

In July 2004, the reconstructed Stari Most was inaugurated. In 2005, UNESCO inscribed it as a World Heritage Site – not only for its architectural significance, but as what the inscription describes as:

“A symbol of reconciliation, international co-operation, and the coexistence of diverse cultural, ethnic, and religious communities.”

– UNESCO World Heritage Committee, 2005

That framing matters. Stari Most is not simply a beautiful bridge. It is an argument – made in stone – that what is destroyed can be rebuilt, and that a city’s soul can outlast its worst moments.

Why Time Out Called It the World’s Most Beautiful

Time Out’s list of the 19 most beautiful bridges in the world considered structures from across the globe – engineering marvels, romantic crossings, and ancient monuments. That Stari Most came first reflects something beyond pure aesthetics.

The Architecture

The bridge is a masterwork of Ottoman engineering. Its single limestone arch achieves a lightness that belies the weight of stone above it.

The pale tenelija limestone – unique to the Mostar region – glows warm in afternoon light and shifts to silver under clouds.

The slightly humped profile, rising steeply from both banks, gives the bridge an almost organic quality, as though it grew from the canyon walls rather than being placed there.

The Setting

The Neretva is a fierce and vivid river – glacially cold, improbably green, fast enough to require respect. The old quarter of Mostar, Stari Grad, crowds the banks on either side: Ottoman-era stone houses, minarets, cobbled lanes, the smell of Bosnian coffee. The bridge does not stand apart from this landscape. It completes it.

The Living Tradition

Every summer, the Stari Most Diving Club holds its traditional competition from the bridge parapet – a practice documented as far back as the 17th century.

Divers train for months to prepare their bodies for the shock of impact. The competition draws crowds of thousands and has become one of the most distinctive sporting and cultural events in the Balkans. It is, quite literally, a tradition that survived a war.

The Story

No bridge on Time Out’s list carries a narrative quite like Stari Most’s. Built by an empire at its peak, standing for four centuries, destroyed in an act of cultural violence, retrieved stone by stone from a river, and rebuilt by a community that refused to accept its loss – the bridge is a compressed history of human resilience. You feel it when you walk across it. The stone is real. The story beneath it is realer still.

Visiting Stari Most: What to Know

Mostar is easily accessible from Sarajevo (roughly 2.5 hours by bus or car) and from the Croatian coast via Dubrovnik or Split.

The bridge itself is free to cross and open at all hours – though early morning and late evening, when the day-trip crowds have thinned, offer the most atmospheric experience.

Practical Information
▪ Getting there: Bus connections from Sarajevo (∼2.5 hrs), Split (∼3 hrs), Dubrovnik (∼2.5 hrs)
▪ Best time to visit: May-June or September-October (avoid peak July–August crowds)
▪ Diving competition: Held annually in late July – one of the Balkans’ most remarkable spectacles
▪ Old Town (Stari Grad): A UNESCO-listed neighbourhood worth at least half a day
▪ Admission: Free – the bridge is a public thoroughfare, open 24 hours

The Museum of the Old Bridge, located in one of the bridge’s original towers, tells the story of its construction, destruction, and reconstruction with quiet dignity. It is one of the more moving small museums in the Balkans.

A word of advice: stand on the bridge at dusk, when the light softens and the Neretva glows beneath you, and look back at the old city. That view – minarets, stone, river, mountains – is why a 16th-century Ottoman arch beat every bridge on earth.