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From Your Cruse Ship to MostarVisit Mostar Accompanied by Professional Private Tour Guide
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Mostar City Tour with Professional Local GuideWalking through Mostar is walking through time. The tracks of the past times are visible in this city wherever you go. They stand next to each other, leaning, entangling in a surprising and unrepeatable symbiosis of incredible elements. Mostar as a settlement was mentioned for the first time in historical sources in the document of April 3rd, 1452, from Dubrovnik’s Archives, acccording to which Vladislav Hercegovic, the son of Herceg Stjepan had escaped from his father’s and occupied Blagaj and the two towers on the bridge over the Neretva. It further says that in the middle of the 15th century, Mostar was an important strategic area in Herzegovina, the medieval Land of Hum. Eversince the 10th century, the Hum Land was an autonomous province ruled by the local dukes, of which the most eminent were the noble families Hranic-Kosaca. Although, Mostar was mentioned for the first time only in the late Middle Ages, the found remains witness the existence of man from its beginngs - Neolitics, the Green Cave above the River Buna, the oldest settlement in the wider city area and somewhat recent Illyrian tumulus, tombs, and fortifications ……
The remains of the three churches found in Cim, Zitiomislici and Sutina from an early stage of Christianity proves that there was life and religion in this area
There are no significant remains from the early Hellenic times, yet there are plenty from the late, as well as from an early Christianity. The remains of the three churches found in Cim, Zitiomislici and Sutina from an early stage of Christianity proves that there was life and religion in this area, that back than was called the Province of Dalmatia. According to archeological research, nearly all the locations witness the continuation of life and activities throughout the Midddle Ages. The numerous medieval tombs and the autochthonous upright grave stones were found on these sites. Unfortunaltely, apart from the finds that indicate the life and activities throughout the Middle Ages up to the document from 1452, we have not obtain other information about the place on which Mostar grew later. First, it was an important strategic point in the late Middle Ages whose nucleus was presented by the bridge with chains over the Neretva, at the place where the river was easy to cross, with the two towers by the bridge and the smalll settlement around the nucleus. Upon the arrival of the Turks, in the second half of the 15th century, around 1466, this strategically important settlement grew from a military fortification into a city. In the first few years, precisely on June 1st, 1474 the settlement called Mostar was mentioned for the first time in in the records of the Council of the Implored at their assembly, on which it was discussed what gift would the Government of the Republic of Dubrovnik present to the ruler of Mostar-subasa Skender. The city continued to develop following the patern of the Ottoman cities at the time, with carsija (market place) and mahala (quarter) around it. Carsija was the oldest. It occupied the most important, the most representative part of the city next to the bridge, on both banks of the Neretva. From all sides from Carsija, there were Mahalas, expanding firstly on the left bank of the Neretva, and than on the right bank in the lowland of Hum and the banks of Radobolja. An Ottoman-like urban setllement was erected in such way and reached its peak and final form at the end of the 17th and the beginning of the 18th century, whose symbol and the most engenous acomplisment in architecture was the Old Bridge from 1566. At the end of the Ottoman rule, in the middle of the 19th century, as the result of declining Turkish power there grew the rule of the Christians in the city. The construction of sacral Christian buildings, that the Christian community was alowed to build, suggests that there was a religios tolerance at the time. The oldest Christian building is an old Orthodox church from 1834.
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Soon after, the Catholics were given their piece of land where they constructed in 1847 the complex of the Old Bishop’s residence in Vukodol, which was the seat of the new Franciscan province founded after the separation from Bosna Srebrena. This was the seat for Mostar’s Bishop. Finally, the great basilica, Franciscan churces st. Peter’s and Paul’s were built in the city and 30 years later a monastery next to it. The Orthodox got a new church in 1873. The milestone in development of Mostar was the year 1878. It was the year when the Turks left and the dominance of the Ottoman Empire started to decline. It was the beginning of the Austro-Hungarian administration. The Austro-Hungarians brought the European life style, the European influences that reflected not only on the governing of the city but on its development as well. Within the 40 years of time, the small Ottoman settlement was transformed into a European city. Within this period of time, Mostar had a railway and was connected with other centers in BiH and Dalmatia. The three bridges were built Musala, Lucki and Carinski. The city had electricity and a modern sewage. The period of Austro-Hungerian rule is the most flourishing period in urbanization and developemnt of Mostar in its entire history. The Austro-Hungerians were building houses and public fascilites like schools and factories. Owing to that, on the streets and squares of Mostar we can presently see the buildings from different historical periods, but also secessions and pseudo-Moorish style. The new architecture had a new criterion, standard, quality and slowly replaced the old one, not through devastation, but preserving of what was the best from that time. . Perhaps, the most important contribution that Austro-Hungarians made was creating a completely new urban environment. Very soon, the city administration descoverd the huge potentials of the hardly populated area on the right bank of the Neretva.. They immediately started building, first in the vicinity of the existing inhabited aras-mahala on the banks of Neretva and Radobolja, and later they planned the construction on the entire land. In the period of the first Yugoslavia, Mostar was already a modern European city, with long tradition. Between 1918-1945, there was very little construction work, therefore this period leaves no particular marks. In the period of the second Yugoslavia, the city started to expand rapidly as a result of the strong industrial development and the growth of the factories. Soon, Mostar became a true industrial, trade, communication, turist and cultural center of the entire Herzegovina. There was a plan upon which Mostar was constructed, yet no significant efforts were made to obtain the quality in architecture. The transition from the 20th to 21st century gave an essentialy new appearance to Mostar.The new era has brought a new architecture, the architecture to witness the present times in the future. The beginning of the new millenium was marked with the huge war devastations of the urban structure which brought a new feature to the city.
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