Počitelj

Stone houses climb a steep hillside above the river Neretva in tiers, rising to a fortress with a tall tower and walls that run down the slope. Between the houses stand the dome and minaret of a mosque, a clock tower, a madrasa and a bathhouse: Počitelj is one of the most complete small Ottoman towns in Bosnia and Herzegovina, its whole historic area protected as a national monument since 2003 and placed on the country's tentative list for UNESCO World Heritage.

The settlement first appears in charters of Alfonso V of Aragon and Frederick III dated between 1444 and 1448, and its fortress was most likely built around 1383 under the Bosnian king Tvrtko I. It was strengthened by Vladislav Hercegović between 1463 and 1471, and in 1471 the Ottomans took it. They held it until 1878, and for long periods it served as the seat of a military district and of a kadi, a judge.

The mosque at the centre of the town was built in 1562 to 1563 by Hajji Alija, son of Musa, and is regarded as one of the finest single-domed mosques of the classical Ottoman style in the country. It was repaired in the seventeenth century by Šišman Ibrahim Pasha, after whom the people of Počitelj came to name it. Beside it stands the madrasa, a religious school recorded before 1664, with five classrooms and a lecture hall around a courtyard, each covered by its own dome. The town also keeps a hammam, a han for travellers, the clock tower and the Gavrankapetanović house, which in 1975 became the home of an artists' colony. The town suffered heavy damage in the war of 1992 to 1995; today the whole historic quarter functions as an open-air museum.

Getting there

Počitelj lies on the left bank of the Neretva beside the Mostar to Metković road, about 3 km from Čapljina, the municipality it belongs to. Mostar is about 24 km away in a straight line and around 30 km by road, and the nearest airport is Mostar International Airport (OMO), about 19 km away.