Old Bridge Area of the Old City of Mostar and Grebnice
Plan this ride
Recorded distance
428 km
Riding-time estimate
9 h 29
Journey
Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
From Mostar it runs 428 km to Mostar; allow about 9 h 29 of riding. It goes by way of Čengića Bara, Grebnice and back through Čengića Bara. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,300 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It crosses from Bosnia & Herzegovina into Montenegro - carry ID and check the toll rules. The line favours views over speed.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Old Bridge Area of the Old City of Mostar
The Old Bridge in Mostar is a single stone arch, slender and impossibly high, leaping across the emerald-green Neretva between two fortified towers. The Ottomans built it in the 1560s, designed by an architect named Mimar Hayruddin, and for more than four centuries it stood as a symbol of the city. On 9 November 1993, during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, it was shelled and collapsed into the river. It was rebuilt with the original techniques and stone recovered from the riverbed and reopened in 2004, and the following year UNESCO listed the Old Bridge Area as a symbol of reconciliation and cultural coexistence.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Old Bridge Area of the Old City of Mostar is where the day begins. Next is Čengića Bara.
2. Čengića Bara
Čengića Bara is a high pasture on the plateau around Kalinovik, in the mountainous heart of eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina, and it is one of the most remote of the stećci sites listed by UNESCO in 2016. A group of medieval tombstones stands in the open grassland, carved with simple decorations, weathered by centuries of wind, snow and sun. Few visitors make it here, and that is part of the appeal. The stones seem to belong to the landscape itself, as much as the rocks and the grass around them.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Čengića Bara comes up about 92 km into the recorded legs. Next is Grebnice.
3. Grebnice
Grebnice, a name that simply means something like grave-stones, is a field of stećci near Bileća in eastern Herzegovina. These are the massive carved tombstones of medieval Bosnia and its neighbours, cut from local limestone between roughly the twelfth and sixteenth centuries, shaped like chests, slabs or little houses with gabled roofs, and sometimes covered with spirals, rosettes, swords, shields and dancing figures. UNESCO listed a selection of the most important sites together in 2016, and the necropolis here is one of the eastern Herzegovinian groups. Standing among them on a still afternoon, with the grass grown up around the stones, is a strangely moving experience.