Rebuilding mostar: International and local visions of a contested city and its heritage

Abstract

In July 2005, the historic center of Mostar, including its sixteenth-century market, mosques, and famous Old Bridge, was inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage List (Fig. 1). The world's attention had initially focused on Mostar when its iconic -sixteenth-century stone Old Bridge was deliberately destroyed during the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia-Hercegovina. At that same time, the city was forcibly divided into politically and culturally distinct Croat and Muslim sides. For many, Mostar's destroyed bridge and its division quickly came to symbolize the war's threat to Bosnian multiculturalism, which was the image of Bosnia-Hercegovina advocated by the international community. As a result, the reconstruction of the Old Bridge in 2004 and simultaneous political reunification of Mostar and subsequent designation as a World Heritage City by international organizations have all been regarded internationally as symbols of reconciliation and the rebuilding of metaphoric bridges between Bosnia's divided people.