Sava Riverfront

The wide Sava River forms Brcko's northern border with Croatia — walk across the bridge

The Sava River at Brcko is wide and slow — a proper central European river, brown with upstream silt, with fishing boats moored along the bank and the flat Croatian plain visible on the far side. Walk along the waterfront promenade, which runs for several hundred metres along the river's edge, and cross the road bridge to officially enter Croatia, if only briefly.

The riverbank is the social centre of Brcko in the evenings — people walk their dogs, teenagers sit on the stone walls, and older men fish or watch the water. Small kiosks sell coffee and soft drinks. It is a genuinely pleasant place to sit and do nothing, which is much of what Brcko offers.

things to do sight
A story
The bridge over the Sava at Brcko was one of the most strategically contested points in the Bosnian War. Whoever controlled it controlled the only road connection between the eastern and western parts of Republika Srpska. The bridge and the town around it were at the centre of the diplomatic deadlock that resulted in Brcko's unique self-governing status under the Dayton Agreement — a compromise reached because neither entity could be allowed to hold the crossing.

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