Demolished In A Few Hours, Rebuilt In Four Years

Historians tend to call the Bosnian War of 1992-1995 the bloodiest phase of the War in the Balkans. It was the conflict where ’everyone fought everyone’, in other words, the Bosnians (or Bosniaks) waged war against Serbians and Croatians as well for their own territorial sovereignty, while Serbians and Croatians were also fighting against each other. The number of civilian and military victims who died in combat is still unknown, according to certain sources 94,000 people died, while other calculations say 97,000 or even more people lost their lives in the massacre that went on for more than three years.

While the fighting ended with the Dayton Peace Agreement of December 1995, the turbulent emotions calmed down with difficulty – because of the war crimes and the crimes against humanity that had been committed, or even cultural barbarism… After all, how can the siege of Sarajevo, lasting for more than three years, be forgotten, or the Srebrenica massacre where more than eight thousand were killed, or the destruction of the Old Bridge, the Stari Most of Mostar?

"The one who has the bridge, has the town as well"

The more than five hundred-year-old stone structure that connects the two banks of the River Neretva in Mostar was called Stari Most, Old Bridge by the locals. The crossing point connecting the Croatian and Bosnian quarters of the town became very important in the middle of the 15th century, when the Kingdom of Bosnia broke up and Sandal Hranic, the lord of Hum province rendered himself independent. His heir, Stevan Vukcic took the title of Duke of Saint Sava and reigned over his country, which was later named Herzegovina after him (duke=herzog). With the help of the Hungarians, they managed to preserve the independence of the territory for a while, but by the end of the century – similarly to other towns – today’s Mostar was occupied by the Turkish.

Hajrudin, the master (some sources say the apprentice) of Sinan, the greatest Turkish architect of the period started the construction of the Old Bridge in 1566. By the time it was completed, the bridge spanned the Neretva running below with a single, brave arch, and it was twenty meters high. The tower of the rampart on the right bank was the garrison of the guards, and its lower rooms were used as a prison. Tivadar Csontváry Kosztka painted the Old Bridge over the River Neretva in 1903, with the title Roman Bridge (source: Magyar Honvéd magazine, vol. 8., No. 35., August 29, 1997).

This amazing architectural masterpiece had been standing for 427 years, more precisely until November 9, 1993, when – in just a few hours – it was destroyed. For in the first half of the Bosnian war the Croatians wanted to make Mostar the seat of the areas under their authority in Herzegovina, therefore everything that was not Croatian was in their way: the army decided to destroy all sectors in the town that reminded of the Muslim past. However, the defenders of the Bosnian parts of the town – against all the efforts of the attackers – upset the plans for the full occupation of the town. With impotent rage, the Croatians turned against the Old Bridge: they twisted the centuries-old saying ’the one who has the bridge, has the town as well’ and declared a death sentence on the stone structure. What they said was if the Bosnians don’t have a bridge, they won’t have a town either!

In the first phase of the fight Croatian gunmen launched attacks against the people using the bridge. The Bosnian defenders tried to protect themselves from the gunshots, but the hastily built protective shields gave little protection to the users of the bridge.

Then the tactics changed: on November 8, 1993 the Croatians launched an artillery attack against the bridge. The first grenade hit the crossing point at 9.57; at 15.52 two tank grenades made a hit in just one minute; and at 15.55 another hit tore out the entire middle section. The following day the shooting continued until the whole structure crumbled into the waves below. The attackers recorded the entire ’action’ on video – this document could even be the memento of the cruelty and senselessness of the Bosnian War.

Hungarians in Bosnia

The peace agreement signed in December 1995 in Dayton, in the United States, put an end to the mindless destruction in the Southern Slavic region. Only a few days after the leaders of the belligerents signed the document, the IFOR (as of 1997, SFOR) forces marched into Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Republic of Hungary, that was not a NATO member state yet but participated in the Partnership for Peace program, also joined the peacekeeping operation.

The troops of the Hungarian Engineering Contingent arrived in Croatia in January 1996, they were stationed in Okucani, a town close to the River Sava and the border of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The duty of the corps was to provide engineering support for the troop movements of the IFOR/SFOR forces in the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina that had been destroyed by the war.

The main task of the soldiers of the Hungarian Engineering Contingent was to repair and reconstruct the bridges in former operational areas, but they have also undertaken an important role in the reconstruction and buidling of public roads and railway lines. In total, the Hungarian troops serving in the IFOR/SFOR renovated and rebuilt dozens of bridges and hundreds of kilometers of public roads and railway lines. For example, it was them who built the famous pontoon bridge named ‘Zsuzsi’ over the River Sava, which was one of the first points of connection – but let us note it was open for military traffic only – between Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina after the war.

But the Hungarians also played a major role in the reconstruction of the Old Bride of Mostar, a World Heritage Site.

Plan for the reconstruction of the bridge

Today the majority of the soldiers who participated in the first phase of the reconstruction of the Old Bridge of Mostar in the second half of the 1990s are retired. In this phase reconnaissance was carried out in the river and the original stones of the bridge were salvaged. Retired Lieutenant Colonel (eng.) Dr. Róbert Veress is today the production chief engineer of Hídépítõ Zrt. (Bridge Construction LLC.), but back then – between December 1996 and December 1997 – he was the chief engineer of the Hungarian Engineering Contingent stationed in Okucani, Croatia. Prior to retirement, the civil engineer was teaching at the engineering faculty of Zrínyi Miklós University of National Defence, and before that – for twenty years after his commissioning – he had been serving at the pontoon building regiment in Ercsi. He went to Okucani as a university professor and – as he told honvedelem.hu – he enjoyed the demanding work in the Hungarian IFOR/SFOR mission very much, and was delighted that he could benefit from his professional knowledge while reconstructing the infrastructure of a country that had been half destroyed in the war.

Róbert Veress told us about the Hungarians’ assistance in the reconstruction of the Old Bridge of Mostar. He said the aim of the foundation called ’Mostar 2004’ that coordinated post-war reconstruction in Mostar was to rebuild the old town of the Bosnian city. Naturally, the first thing they wanted to rebuild was the destroyed Old Bridge, by lifting out the stones from the river and restoring them.

– When this plan was publicized, Endre Apáthy, the CEO of Hídépítõ Zrt. at the time made an offer, saying that the company was willing to participate in the reconstruction of the bridge. Simultaneously, the town leaders contacted the command of the SFOR mission and asked the troops to help them lift out the stones – said Róbert Veress, who had nothing to do with Hídépítõ at that time, since he joined the company as an employee after his retirement.

Following the offer of Hídépítõ and a meeting with the mayor of Mostar, the Hungarian contingent was assigned the task – order No. 662 – that as the first step of the reconstruction of the Old Bridge, the Hungarian divers should carry out reconnaissance in the river and on the basis of that, they should make recommendations and tell how and when the stones could be lifted out.

The Hungarian divers scouted the river in a short time. What they wanted to know – besides the natural parameters – was where the stones were lying on the bottom of the river and what kind of methods to use for lifting them. Due to the narrow riverbed it was impossible to maneuver above water with any type of crane, therefore they decided to assemble a catamaran from the PMP bridge ferries used for the construction of pontoon bridges, and constructed a lifting device to salvage the stones – the estimated weight of which is 50-60 tons – from the water.

The concept reported to the chief engineer of the SFOR on the basis of the reconnaissance convinced him that the Hungarians are really capable of lifting out the stones. The experts of the Hungarian Engineering Contingent and the engineers of Hídépítõ elaborated the detailed plan, and the work began.

– This job wasn’t an easy one. We carried out reconnaissance again on August 24 to collect all the necessary data for the plan. With this information and in cooperation with the engineers of Hídépítõ Rt. we completed the detailed plans of the specially constructed structure by September 3. The professionals of the company manufactured the steel structure by September 10, and parallel to that, we prepared the blocks we could manufacture locally, in Okucani – remembers the retired lieutenant colonel, who also told us that they assembled the structure on the Sava only a week later, and between September 17 and 21, the device was ’tested’ by lifting out blocks of concrete of various size and weight from the water. It was only after that that the supreme commander of the SFOR officially announced: the troops of the stabilization force are ready to lift out the remains of the destroyed Old Bridge from the Neretva!

Suddenly the first stone appears…

Following the successful test on the River Sava, they dismantled the structure and transported it to Mostar by lorries. It seems to be easy only in theory! For – like the chief engineer said – they had to do a 300-kilometer distance from Okucani with the 16-meter long vehicles on narrow and winding mountain roads that were surrounded by mine fields – the legacy of the war. It took two days for the convoy to arrive in Mostar…

The troops of the Hungarian Engineering Contingent and the experts of Hídépítõ were already waiting for them. Fortunately, they had an opportunity to practice the operation of the strange structure on the water until the announced date of lifting out the first stone, that is September 29. They operated the lever with the help of a winch from the bank of the river, but for safety’s sake they also linked it to a pusher craft (as a rescue ship) – we have learned from Dr. Róbert Veress, who also told us that when the first stone appeared on the surface, there was a great ovation: thousands of people who assembled on the banks were cheering as one. Bosnian president Alija Izetbegoviæ was also there among the guests. Naturally, they invited Croatian president Franjo Tuðman as well, who could not attend the ceremony…

– The first stone was lifted off the ferry and put onto a scaffolding by a Hungarian and a French military crane, and the happy people of Mostar decorated it with yellow lilies, the flower on the coat of arms of Bosnia and Herzegovina – said Róbert Veress, who also told us that the Hungarian troops were working 8–10 hours a day until November 30. In total, they collected some 140 cubic meters of stone from the Neretva.

The Hungarians were not involved in the second phase – the actual reconstruction – of the Old Bridge of Mostar. A Turkish construction firm won the tender for the works. The construction began in 2000 with the reinforcement of the remaining pillars, then the quarry from which the original stones had come was reopened. After some carving work, a part of the stones that were salvaged by the Hungarian soldiers and bridge construction experts were built into those parts of the bridge that bear less load. But the first stone that was lifted out did not became a part of the bridge again, the town still has it and it will be exhibited in the Old Bridge Museum that is under construction.

– It took only a few hours to destroy the bridge, while the reconstruction took four years. The people of Mostar and the tourists could take possession of the new Old Bridge once again on July 23, 2004, and the divided city became whole again on this day – told us the former military officer, who has been to Mostar several times in the past decade. He was following the reconstruction of the bridge and saw the beautiful structure after the handover as well.

He told us that once he was in the city with his wife a man came to him and said: he recognized the engineer, he was there when the first stone was lifted out of the river and thanked him for his help. It felt very good, just like when he went to one of the cafés in Mostar and the lady behind the counter remembered: he never takes sugar in his coffee…