Mehmed Paša Sokolović Bridge
Sixteenth-century Ottoman stone bridge over the Drina, a UNESCO World Heritage site since 2007.
The bridge was built over the Drina at Višegrad on the orders of Grand Vizier Mehmed Paša Sokolović and completed in 1577 to a design by Mimar Sinan, chief architect to the Ottoman court. It runs 179.5 metres on eleven masonry arches of between eleven and fifteen metres span, carried on piers set into the riverbed. Cut limestone, careful proportion and the long unbroken line of the parapet make it a leading example of Ottoman monumental engineering, and it carried the road between Bosnia and Istanbul.
Midway along the deck the roadway widens into the kapija, a terrace with stone benches and inscriptions that has long served as a meeting place. Three arches were destroyed in the First World War and five damaged in the Second, each time repaired; further conservation followed in 2010 with Turkish funding. The bridge gave Ivo Andrić the setting for his novel The Bridge on the Drina, published in 1945, and it was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2007.
Highlights
- Completed in 1577 to a design by the Ottoman architect Mimar Sinan
- Eleven limestone arches carrying a deck 179.5 metres long
- The kapija, a mid-span terrace with stone benches and inscriptions
- UNESCO World Heritage site since 2007; setting of Andrić's novel
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