Visit to Stolac, Old Town and river Bregava, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Hello everyone.
Couple weeks back we went on a trip for a weekend where we visited several cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
One of those cities is Stolac. It was my first time visiting Stolac. Beautiful city with long history.
Stolac is city in Southeast part of Bosnia and Herzegovina. City is situated on bank of lovely river Bregava and surrounded by hills.
Old Town Stolac and scenery along river Bregava are places worth visiting.

After nigh visit to Mostar we stayed in hotel and in the morning we were ready to continue our journey and head to the Stolac.
Bosnian coffee and sweet called Lokum is way to start.

We stayed near Blagaj and the place that we stayed was in hill area. Quit and lovely place. Around 10 minutes into our trip we saw some old fortress near the road. So we stopped to check it out.
Super start of journey for now.

This fortress is called Tvrđava Merdžan glava. This is fortress from Austro Hungarian period. It was military outpost located east of city Mostar.

In near is wind farm with wind turbines. So you can assume it gets windy here. And it was windy this morning as well.

Her you can see mountain Velež. Its height reaches 1900 meters in height with highest peak Botin reaching 1969 meters above sea level.

Fortress is built on 802 meter above sea level.

From this side fortress looks quite big.

Inside of the fortress is less preserved.

There are nice views of the landscape from the fortress.

Next stop before Stolac was necropolis Radimlja. Radimlja is one of the most important Necropolis of Stećak in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Stećci are monumental tombstones from medieval period.

In Bosnia there is around 60 000 Stećak or monumental tombstones in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Earliest Stećci are from 12th and 13th century but most of them are from 14th to 16th century.

Radimlja is one of the most important and valuble necropolis of Stećak tombstone in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Necropolis Radimlja is on the UNSESCO list of World Hertitage.

There are different shapes and sizes of Stećak. With different drawings and motifs and writings of course.
Biggest Stećak is more than 32 tons in weight and located near Sarajevo.

And we arrived at Stolac. First place to visit is Old Town or Stari Grad Stolac. Old town has other name as Vidoški grad.

First mentioning of the Old town dates to 1444.
Old town has big area of 20 503 meters squared.
It is divided to lower town, middle town and upper town.

Look at the city from here.

Inside thee walls of the Old town there are stone towers and walls, 10 water containers, storages, place to sleep and there was a mosque which was destroyed in 1906.

Stone stairs with green is so nice touch. Exploring here is very entertaining. As you walk around new surprise awaits for you.

Stone wall with stairs along the wall.
Walls around Old town are around 2 meter in thickness.

This is next passage to the upper part of the Old Town.

Old Town is located in the centers of city Stolac so there are so many nice views from the inside the Old Town.
Look at the city stadium.

Objects that were inside the upper part of the Old Town are mostly in ruins.

And from the walls on the upper part of the Old Town you can see beautiful sights of city Stolac.
Surrounding hills and river Bregava.

Time to explore rest of the city. Old Town is very big and you can spend good time here.

Now we continue toward river Bregava.

This is mosque of Hadži Alije Hadžisalihovića or Ćuprijska džamija. Ćuprijaska džamija could be translated as Bridge mosque. It was built in 1736. In 1765/1766 mosque is expanded and it is supposed to be in todays dimensions.
Ćuprijska džamija is on the list of National Monuments of Bosnia and Herzegovina since 2003.

This bridge is next to the mosque. Here are remains of Hamam or public bath that was built on the end of 16th century or start of the 17th century.
Now there are only remains of the foundation and some walls.
As I understood its place was here where water passes through the first arch of this stone bridge.

Public bath or Haman was built near the bridge so it is called Hamam na Ćupriji or Hamam on the bridge.

As we go along the river Bregava we see more objects that were built near or on the river. There are many water mills and stupe or places for cleaning and coloring the wool products. Oldest are built in 15th century.
Some of them are restored and in use today.

I think that this is Stupa or place to roll, clean and color wool products.
These stone buildings and river Bregava are in such harmony.
Cat is part of the photo as well.

This is Tekke or Tekija on the river bank.

Interesting small pedestrian bridge.

This is water mill. You can see these characteristic stone tiles on the roof. Winds here are quite strong.

Entrance to the mill.

Here it is written mill name I assume and its owner name.
Later when I was passing by again I saw man sitting in front of the mill. So this may be one of the working mills.

In the back there is a small water pond and water is released in the ducts that lead water to the mill.

This small house or mill is take over by the bushes.

This is waterfall Provalije. It is beautiful waterfall on river Bregava.
During summer and warm days there is less water so there are no so many water on the waterfalls.
On the other side there should be several waterfalls.
Height is around 20 meters.

River Bregava along with its waterfalls, mills, stune and bridges is in 2003 added to the list of National monuments of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Here some smaller waterfalls are visible.

On this side of the river there are couple waterfalls.

River Bregava is clean and special with its color.

There is a small beach in here so it is worth visiting during hot summer days.

Lovely place. Cave like structure and maybe there is a cave behind the waterfall.

Resting places along river bank.

Another lovely bridge.
Ćuprija na rijeci Bregavi or Ćuprija on rive Bregava. Word Ćuprija means bridge.
It is small stone bridge built at the end of 18th or beginning of 19th century.

On river Bregava total of 15 bridges is built from which 10 of them are of historical importance and most of them are restored.

This bridge has 5 arches.

This is Begovina, residental estate of feudal family at the time. It was built in mid 19th century.

Sahat kula or Clock tower was build in 17th century.

Stolac is city with so many history and stories. Besides these places there are more to it and I did not manage to visit all of them. So maybe one more visit would be a nice idea. To give you idea about what is there more to visit we have
Daorson and its remains, Illyrian town that was built by tribe Daors who lived on this area from 300 to 50 BC. Also cave Badanj that has cave engraving which date from 14 000 to 18 000 years ago. This Palaeolithic site was discovered in 1976.

Stolac is beautiful city. Full of history and interesting details. I had so nice time here. Visiting Stolac was right thing to do. If you are visiting Mostar you should add Stolac to your trip plan.

Photos by @sammy00.