RECOURBED BRIDGE

This elegant little bridge (Kriva Ćuprija) is even older than the Old Bridge. Located very close to the city's most famous landmark, the so-called "curved bridge" (also known in French as "pont courbé" or "en dos d'âne") spans the small Radobolja River, a tributary of the Neretva that rises 5 km to the west. Neither its sponsor nor its date of construction are known, but the structure is mentioned for the first time in 1558. It owes its present name to its shape of a perfect semi-circular arch, 8.56 m wide and 4.15 m high. Also built in stone, it strongly evokes the shape of the Old Bridge. Like it, it had to be rebuilt. Already damaged by a bombardment during the 1993-1994 siege, the curved bridge was finally washed away by a strong flood of the Radobolja River on December 31, 1999. It was rebuilt in 2001-2002 with the support of Unesco and with the financial help of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. For the anecdote, we will notice that this Luxembourg intervention allowed the installation here of the only explanatory panel in French in all Mostar. The bridge benefits above all from a pleasant setting, dominated on the right bank of the Radobolja by the beautiful Nezir-Aga mosque (Neziragina Džamija). Dating from 1550, it was destroyed not during the last war, but during the period of socialist Yugoslavia, in 1950, when it was already deserted by the faithful for twenty years. Rebuilt in 1998-1999, it is not open to visitors for the moment.