Višegrad is a town built around a bridge, and the bridge is among the most beautiful in the Balkans. The Mehmed Paša Sokolović Bridge, with its eleven great stone arches spanning the green Drina, was built in the sixteenth century on the order of the Grand Vizier of the same name, who was born nearby. It is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Ivo Andrić, who grew up in Višegrad, made it the central character of his novel The Bridge on the Drina, which tells the story of the town through the centuries. If you read nothing else before coming here, read a few pages of that book, and the place will make much more sense.
The town has also known terrible times in the twentieth century, including the war of the 1990s, and the memory is part of the landscape. Today it is a quiet river town with a few thousand inhabitants, and the bridge is a place where people sit, fish and talk, and where in the evening the light turns the stone yellow and then rose. The Drina flows under it, wide and strong, coming out of the deep canyons of the upper river.
Riding here is a pleasure. The roads follow the Drina and its tributaries through steep, forested valleys. Heading upstream towards Foča or downstream towards Bajina Bašta, you pass through tunnels cut in the rock and above the water in long, sweeping bends, and the scenery is a mix of cliffs, green water and small villages. Some of the roads have patchy surfaces and narrow sections, so stay alert for trucks and logging vehicles. In early summer the river is high and noisy, in autumn the forests colour, and winter can bring frost in the shaded corners.
With about six thousand people, Višegrad has fuel stations, shops and cafés, so it is a sensible place to stop for a proper meal. Walk across the bridge on foot, look up and downstream, and notice the little platform at the centre, called the sofa, where Andrić's characters sat. It is a rare place where literature and architecture still feel close to each other.