INSCRIPTION " BIH VOLIMO TE "

This giant inscription that means "Bosnia and Herzegovina we love you" dominates Mostar in the east. It is made up of 10-meter-high letters of white stone and is installed at the scenic site of Fortica (460 meters above sea level), in the foothills of Mount Velež. The origin of the inscription here dates back to the end of the 19th century, when the Austro-Hungarian administration had a crown and the characters F, J and I drawn here in honor of Emperor Franz Joseph I. The place was then abandoned, but in the 1970s, on the initiative of the Youth League, a new inscription was added: the name Tito with the symbol of the Youth Relay, a stick used every year for a big relay race through Yugoslavia. In 1980, after the death of the Yugoslav leader, only Tito's name was kept and accompanied by the slogan Volimo te ("we love you"). Finally, after the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Bosnian authorities had the word Tito replaced by the initials of Bosnia-Herzegovina (BiH) and the drawing of the Old Bridge was added. The latter has now disappeared, but the rest of the inscription is still well maintained. In response to this slogan deemed "pro-Bosnian", a group of Bosnian-Croats painted in 2016 the symbol of Croatia, on the other bank of the Neretva, northwest of Mostar: a large red and white checkered coat of arms (about 30 x 20 m), near the antenna on the top of Planinica hill (868 m above sea level).