The Stari Most is the heart of Mostar and the reason most visitors come. The single arch of pale Tenelija limestone leaps 29 metres across the Neretva, with the river running emerald-green twenty metres below. The Ottoman architect Mimar Hayruddin, a pupil of Sinan, completed the original in 1566 — and was reportedly so afraid it would fall that he prepared his own funeral on the day the scaffolding came down.
The bridge gives the city its name (most means bridge) and its identity. It was destroyed during the Bosnian War in November 1993 and rebuilt with original techniques and local stone, reopening in 2004. The whole old town around it, including the bridge, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Local divers leap from the parapet in summer for tips — a tradition that goes back centuries, formalised in an annual diving competition each July.