Our vacation trip is coming to an end. I will write about the trip itself, where we went, where we stopped, how long we stayed at sea and how we had a good time in another post. Now I want to present to you an extremely beautiful city, which is culturally and historically very famous, and that is the city of Visegrad. In the only basin of the river Drina, under mountains about 1000 meters high, this beautiful town is located in the east of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In its vicinity is the border with Serbia, and in the city itself the small river Rzav flows into the Drina.
I have mentioned the Drina River many times in my posts and always said that it is the river of my childhood, my girlhood, and I can freely say, the river of my life.

So, on the Drina is the city of Višegrad, known primarily for the bridge that was built in 1500 and some years ago. It was built by the famous Turkish architect Sinan Pasha, and by order of the Grand Vizier Mehmed Pasha Sokolović. As a Serbian child, Mehmed Pasha was taken to Turkey at the age of 6 to be educated and become a Turkish Janissary soldier. However, he proved to be an exceptional warrior, a good soldier and was noticed by Suleiman 1, who took him as his vizier. Mehmed Pasha Sokolović married the granddaughter of Sultan Sulejman, but even though he was a small child, he never forgot his birthplace. On his orders, in Višegrad, not far from his native village of Sokolović, he built a bridge with 11 arches, which is 15 meters high above the Drina, about 6 meters wide and about 250 meters long. Until about thirty years ago, that old bridge was the only bridge that connected the two sides of the city. Then a new bridge was built over which all traffic was diverted, and the old bridge became a tourist attraction.
Why am I writing to you so much about the bridge? This bridge is called the Bridge on the Drina, because Ivo Andrić, the only Serbian Nobel laureate for literature, received the Nobel Prize in 1961 for his novel "The Bridge on the Drina". Ivo Andrić was born in Travnik, but he spent his childhood in Visegrad and as a sign of gratitude, he wrote a novel about the famous bridge. Thus, Mehmed pasha Sokolović and 500 years later, Ivo Andrić, wanted to repay and thank the city of Visegrad.
Beautiful hotels, restaurants, markets, tourist trips by boats and speedboats from the Drina canyon to the Višegrad lake, were not enough to survive in the city itself and live from one's work.

Now, the famous director Emir Kusturica, who is making Andrićgrad in the city of Višegrad, enters the scene to thank Višegrad. A beautiful complex with a hotel, a cultural center, a cinema, a summer stage, monuments, and a municipal building, was designed and financed by Kusturica himself. A lot of young people got jobs, in cafes, pastry shops, cinema, so it prevented the displacement of young people.
And finally, as the icing on the cake, the world's most famous tennis player, our Novak Djokovic, who finances the construction of a church next to Andrićgrad, enters the scene. Are you now wondering why I started to write so much about Visegrad in the first place? A city that has been saved from oblivion and decay, a city with a soul, a city with its warmth and beauty.

Another point of interest. From Goražde to Višegrad, you follow a road where the Drina river follows you all the time, and on the way you pass through 30 tunnels.

I wanted to make a collage of photos, but I realized that the beauty will not be seen in smaller photos, so enjoy.

And come, stop by to see this beauty.
Until the next post, cheers and thanks for reading this too