BALKAN DISKURS (13/1/2016)
Bosnia is a country of bridges: Sarajevo is famous for its 13 bridges, among them the well-known Latin Bridge where Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated, an event that triggered the First World War. The Mostar Bridge is on the cover of almost every Bosnian travel guide, and the photos of its destruction during the war still haunt the country. Many cried for the bridge the same way they would cry for a deceased friend or family member. Nobel Prize winner Ivo Andrić’s book The Bridge on the Drina is an elegy to the Ottoman bridge in Višegrad, which connected the people living there.
But bridges also have an important symbolic meaning. A proverb says people fight and feel lonely because they build too many walls and not enough bridges. As an element of connection, a bridge is a beautiful symbol of intercultural debate and reconciliation, especially important in a country still divided and scarred by a recent war.
Bridges also symbolize mobility, communication and development. They can connect people and promote understanding while allowing them to reach the “other side.” During my time in Bosnia I discovered its bridges and the inspiring people who cross them. These are their stories (…)
Read more:
https://balkandiskurs.com/en/2016/01/13/the-bridges-of-bosnia-herzegovina/
EAST JOURNAL (17/3/2016) Translated into Italian
http://www.eastjournal.net/archives/69442