Mehmed Paša Sokolović Bridge
- UNESCO World Heritage
Interesting facts
- The bridge carried the main road between Bosnia and Constantinople, the route known as the Tsarigrad road.
- Its widened centre, the kapija, became a favourite meeting place for the people of Višegrad and is the heart of Andrić's novel.
- A wooden watchtower armed with small cannons once stood in the middle of the bridge, with oak doors closing the passage beneath it; it was pulled down in 1886.
- The stone was quarried at Banja, about 5 kilometres downstream on the right bank of the Drina.
- Some of its stone blocks are bound together with iron cramps sealed in poured lead.
- Two verse inscriptions on the bridge, dated 1571 and 1577, were composed by the Sarajevo poet Muhamed Karamusić Nihadi to mark the start and end of building.
- The arches rest on nine massive stone piers, each roughly 11.5 metres long, carrying a roadway six metres wide.
- From 1915 until 1939 traffic crossed the broken section on a temporary iron structure, which was itself destroyed in 1943.
- The approach ramp on the western bank is about 120 metres long and is carried on four arches of its own.
Why it is worth it
The bridge at Višegrad carries eleven stone arches across the green Drina in eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina, and it is one of the masterpieces of Ottoman engineering. It was commissioned by Mehmed Paša Sokolović, grand vizier to three sultans, who was born in this region, and designed by the court architect Mimar Sinan; construction ran from 1571 to 1577. UNESCO inscribed it as a World Heritage Site in 2007.
The bridge is 179.5 metres long. Its arches span between 11 and 15 metres, and on the western bank the roadway turns through a right angle onto a long approach ramp. The proportions — the rhythm of the arches, their reflections in the river — are what make it so admired; it has been repaired many times, notably after three arches were blown up in the First World War and five damaged in the Second, and it was restored again from 2010 with Turkish funding.
The bridge is known worldwide through Ivo Andrić's novel The Bridge on the Drina (1945), which follows four centuries of life in Višegrad through the bridge and its town; Andrić later received the Nobel Prize in Literature.
The bridge also carries a darker memory. In 1992, at the start of the Bosnian War, Bosniak civilians from Višegrad were killed on the bridge and along the riverbank by Bosnian Serb forces and paramilitaries, and their bodies thrown into the Drina. Visitors should be aware that the town is today in the Republika Srpska entity and that the events of 1992 remain painful and contested locally. The best views of the arches are from the riverbanks.
Getting there
The bridge is in the centre of Višegrad; the nearest larger town is Goražde, about 28 km away. Sarajevo International Airport (SJJ) is about 77 km away in a straight line and is the practical gateway; Tuzla (TZL), about 88 km away, is an alternative.
Plan your visit
We have no confirmed visit data yet. Once it is confirmed, this block also carries the date it was checked.
Nearby places
- Šargan Eight 18.9 km · heritage-railway
On these lists
From the encyclopaedia
The Mehmed Paša Sokolović Bridge is a historic bridge over the Drina River in Višegrad, in the Republika Srpska region of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It was completed in 1577 by the Ottoman court architect Mimar Sinan on the order of the Grand Vizier Mehmed Paša Sokolović. In 2003 bridge was included into the List of National Monuments of Bosnia and Herzegovina by KONS, and UNESCO inclusion into the World Heritage List followed in 2007.
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