Neretva Valley Guide: Mostar, Blagaj, Počitelj and Kravica

The Neretva rises in the Dinaric Alps at about 1,227 metres and runs 225 kilometres to the Adriatic; 208 of those kilometres lie in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the final 22 in Croatia. Through its middle course around Mostar the valley winds between deep canyons and fertile plains. The basin holds more than thirty endemic fish species and the largest number of threatened freshwater fish among Mediterranean river systems. This guide links Stari Most, the Blagaj Tekke, Počitelj and the Kravica waterfalls into one sensible route. I will not state timetables, prices or opening hours without a verified source; because they shift by season and year, for missing details I honestly say I do not know.

Suleiman the Magnificent commissioned the Stari Most, and Mimar Hayruddin, a student of Sinan, built it across the Neretva between 1557 and 1566. The single-arch stone bridge is roughly 29-30 metres long, 4 metres wide and stands about 24 metres above the river. It was destroyed on 9 November 1993 during the Croat-Bosniak war; between 2001 and 2004 it was rebuilt by original methods with UNESCO, the World Bank and the Aga Khan Trust, and the bridge with its old town became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2005. Diving from the bridge became a formal competition in 1968 and continues today. Because summer competition dates and museum fees and hours vary year to year, I will not write them without a verified source; if I am unsure, I say I do not know.

About 12 kilometres south-east of Mostar, in Blagaj, a dervish tekke rises at the foot of a sheer cliff from which the Buna river emerges. The Buna is a karst spring bursting from a vast cavern; it is said to discharge roughly 30 cubic metres per second and to rank among Europe's largest springs. Formed in Ottoman times by about 1520 at the latest, the ensemble holds the tekke, a guest house and a türbe; the Ottoman traveller Evliya Çelebi described the site on his 1664 visit. It is protected as a national monument and proposed for the UNESCO list. Because entry conditions, visiting hours and dress rules can change, I will not write them without a verified source; if I do not know the current details I honestly say so and suggest confirming on site.

Počitelj is a walled town about 30 kilometres south of Mostar, set against a rock on the left bank of the Neretva. The core of the fortress was founded in 1383 by the Bosnian king Tvrtko I; the Ottomans took the town in 1471 and held it until 1878. Its focus is the single-dome mosque that, by its inscription, Hajji Alija built in 1562-63 and Šišman Ibrahim-pasha later repaired; beside it stand a clock tower about 16 metres tall and the Gavran-captain tower overlooking the Neretva. Badly damaged in the 1992-1995 war, the town was declared a national monument in 2003 and sits on the UNESCO tentative list. Because visiting hours for the mosque and tower, and any fees, vary by season, I will not write them without a verified source; if I do not know, I say so.

Kravica is a broad travertine (tufa) cascade system on the Trebižat river, a tributary of the Neretva, about 40 kilometres south of Mostar and roughly 10 kilometres south of Ljubuški. Its height is given as about 25 metres, and the lake at its base has a radius of around 120 metres. In spring, when the water runs fullest, the arid landscape turns bright green. In summer the falls are frequently visited for swimming and picnics; a small café, picnic areas and camping are reported nearby. The Trebižat runs about 50 kilometres as a karst river from its source to its confluence with the Neretva. Because entry fees, opening hours and the periods when swimming is allowed vary by season, I will not write them without a verified source; if I am unsure, I honestly say I do not know.