Aug 5 - Knowing that it is going to be in excess of 100⁰ F today, we walk into town by 7:45. The original plan to see the old town area of Mostar is shelved when we see a ‘drop-off and pick-up’ bus tour of several sights out of town for 20 Euros/person. It includes the town I wanted to see tomorrow, plus some other places that I did not realistically see time for. As we are out so early, we can get tickets for today and just wait around for the bus to leave.
Nearby the bus station is the Dzarnija Mosque, with an unusual slate tile roof, which I have not seen before in BiH.
The Neretva River, which flows through Mostar.
The first stop on the tour is the town of Blagaj, about 20 km south of Mostar. The main attraction here is the Dervish House, a monastery for Sufi mystics, established after the Ottoman invasion. In truth, the area has a geographical uniqueness that likely made this a spot of religious significance back to Illyrian times. The backdrop is a massive limestone cliff, at the base of which flows the Buna river, straight out of a cave.
It is not known when precisely the tekke was constructed, but it was first recorded in an account from 1664, though it was noted then that it was already famous in the Islamic world. The activities of the Dervish mystics were banned after WWII and it wouldn’t be until 2012-13 when the building was restored.
The cave.
Many structures in Blagaj have the characteristic slate tile rooves noted earlier. Just nearby we saw a tortoise in the undergrowth.
Red Army Mostar. I was seeing this graffiti everywhere, so looked it up. It refers to a football league, established in Mostar in 1981, as a multi-ethnic team that proved very popular in this part of the country (i.e. the Herzegovina part). It was held up as an example of how sport fandom could transcend ethnic divisions between Croat, Bosniak, and Serb. After the breakup of Yugoslavia, the ethnic diversity of the league and fan base diminished, though apparently it still retains some of its popularity.
From Blagaj we moved south along the Neretva River.
The next destination on the bus is the town of Počitelj, built into the steep valley wall on the east side of the river. It is thought that this town was founded and fortified by King Stjepan Tvrtko I in 1383. It retained importance as a regional government center. It is referenced as having held a Hungarian garrison from 1463-71. In 1471 it fell to the Ottomans, and remained an Ottoman city until 1878. During this long time period, it attained the typical physical buildings of an Ottoman town, including: Mosque, mektab (primary school), madressa (secondary school), hamman (bathhouse), han (hotel), clocktower, and charitable kitchen (imaret). After the takeover by the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1878, it lost importance and went into decline. It sustained extensive damage during the 1992-95 war.
Počitelj is almost uninhabited now, as there are no jobs here and it is too far to commute to Mostar. Many of the houses have been rented out or closed down. At the top left is the main watchtower along the fortified walls. The walls are difficult to see but they wind up and along the hills around.
View from the top of the tower, showing the mosque, clocktower, and the hammam on the extreme right.
Though the watchtower is gutted inside, a lot remains of the exterior design.
We finally went inside a functioning mosque, mihrab appearing on the right of the photo. It was a peaceful place to sit for awhile, and wasn’t boiling hot. Odette rolled around on the floor, tried to run up the minbar stairway, and otherwise caused anxiety for the caretaker.
From here, continue south to Čapljina, then east into the highlands to Kravica Waterfalls. These are not the largest falls in BiH, but appear to be the most visited. Like Mostar, they were touted by many travel agencies as one-day tours from Split.
The falls are along the Trebižat River, which of course is flowing through pure limestones and has the characteristic turquoise hue. It was crammed with bathers. One can see immediately why Croatia bans any swimming by visitors to Plitvice NP. So many people in the water invariably tramples the plants and drives off the animals. Having said that, Odette was ecstatic to cool off in the water, and spent an hour making things out of clay from the shallows.
Last stop on this tour is Međugorje, an ethnically Croatian town also situated up on the limestone plateau. I had no idea what to expect of it, and found it a bit overwhelming. Supposedly, in 1981, an apparition of the Virgin Mary appeared to six local children, at what is now called the ‘Apparition Hill’. As has happened in many other cases (like Fátima, Portugal), this caused instant fame among Catholics, and the town became a major pilgrimage site. Though the miracle of the apparition is still being ‘verified’ by the Vatican, it obviously is being treated as the real deal.
Our bus parked about 10 minutes away from the main church, and we all walk in the baking afternoon sun. I decided that the point of parking so far away was to make us suffer or our sins. Like the woman I saw, years ago, crawling on her hands and knees up the stairway at Lourdes Cathedral in France. Groups of pilgrims are everywhere, some carrying the flags of their country. Most are Eastern European. A building off to the side has doorways inscribed with the name of many languages, with lines of people waiting in front of them. This is for confession, in your language of choice.
The church was built only after the breakup of Yugoslavia, when the regime no longer forbid pilgrims from visiting. They even blockaded Apparition Hill to stem the tide of devotees.
The main entrance to the church.
The structure is new so really not that interesting inside. The woman may look as though she is wearing a Croatian flag, but it is actually an almost identical flag used for the ethnic Croats of BiH (Herzeg-Bosnia).
Behind the church is a large area amphitheater-like area where group of various nationalities can gather together.
Late afternoon, heading down the hairpin turns to the Neretva River valley and back to Mostar.
Today’s route: (A/F) Mostar, (B) Blagaj, (C) Počitelj, (D) Kravica Falls, and (E) Međugorje.
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