This website is an archive from 2016

This site was actively maintained from 2006 to 2016. Since then I have kept it online for historical interest, but have made no further updates. Much of the information in these pages is now incorrect or obsolete.

Bridge on the Drina added to UNESCO World Heritage List

30 June 2007

The Mehmed Paša Sokolović Bridge at Višegrad in Bosnia is one of 22 new sites inscribed in the UNESCO World Heritage List. The bridge, which inspired the novel “The Bridge over the Drina” by Ivo Andric, is said to represent “the apogee of Ottoman monumental architecture and civil engineering”. It’s the second Bosnian bridge to be included - the bridge at Mostar (along with the surrounding old town) is already listed.

The list of new sites includes two other Balkan locations. The Old Town of Corfu is described as “a fortified Mediterranean port … notable for its high level of integrity and authenticity”, while the Roman site at Gamzigrad-Romuliana in eastern Serbia makes the list thanks to its “unique testimony of the Roman building tradition marked by the ideology of the period of the Second Tetrachy”.

As it happens I haven’t been to any of these three sites - clearly I need to travel some more in the Balkans.