CATHEDRAL OF THE HOLY TRINITY

This Serbian Orthodox cathedral (Saborna Crkva Svete Trojice/Саборна Црква Свете Тројице) stands on the heights of eastern Mostar, offering a beautiful view of the entire city. It is the seat of the eparchy (diocese) of Zahumlje-and-Herzegovina, which covers Herzegovina, the southern coast of Croatia and a small part of Montenegro. The original 1873 building was dynamited by Croatian forces in June 1992, after the departure of the Bosnian-Serb population from Mostar (14,000 in 1991, about 4,500 today). Built with the help of Russia and the Ottomans, it was the largest cathedral in the Balkans at the end of the 19th century. Between 2010 and 2021, it was rebuilt in the same neo-Byzantine style and with the same dimensions: 45 m long, 26 m wide, dome mounted on a drum 30 m high and bulbous bell tower 45 m high. While ceremonies have been held there since 2018, the interior was still under construction in 2022. Just 100 m from the cathedral is another Serbian Orthodox church, Nativity of the Mother of God (Crkva Rođenja Presvete Bogorodice/Црква Pођења Пресвете Богородице). Dating from the late 17th century, it was burned down in 1992 but retains its stone walls and some of its old icons that had been moved. More modest in size (13.2 m long, 9.2 m wide), it is partly buried in the ground: the Ottoman authorities then did not want such a Christian building to be too visible.