AKTC completed a five-year-long restoration and rehabilitation effort in the historic city of Mostar. It was carried out in parallel with the restoration of Mostar’s most famous landmark, the Old Bridge (Stari Most). From the very beginning, the Trust and WMF realised that the reconstruction of the bridge without an in-depth rehabilitation of the historic neighbourhoods flanking it on the picturesque Neretva riverbanks – its matrix as it were – would be devoid of context and meaning.

The work programme established a framework of urban conservation schemes and individual restoration projects that would help regenerate the most significant areas of historic Mostar, and particularly the urban tissue around the Old Bridge.

The work achieved under the AKTC/WMF partnership complemented the bridge reconstruction project of the UNESCO/World Bank group with a comprehensive urban rehabilitation effort. AKTC’s and WMF’s work through the years 1998-2004 reflects the pursuit of a threefold strategy:

• establishment of a detailed conservation and development plan for the old city (within its 1918 boundaries);
• development of a series of action plans for significant specific areas that are characterised by ensembles of historic buildings and their enclosed or adjacent public spaces, particularly the two historic neighbourhoods flanking the Old Bridge complex on both sides of the Neretva River; and
• identification of 21 important historic buildings to be restored as a priority for the city’s recovery, with funds made available through public or private investment. Out of this list four buildings were restored with funds from AKTC/WMF, while four others are under restoration thanks to funds received from the World Bank and other donors. The remaining 13 priority buildings await donor funding or private investment.