Center for peace and multiethnic cooperation in Mostar gave initiative for organization of the exhibition called:

The Old Bridge – The monument of peace.

As a mayor of Mostar in the period from 1994 to 2001, I was constantly searching for all possible ideas to renew joint life and re-establish destroyed trust, to re-unite our town in understanding and forgiveness. The Old Bridge in Mostar, in this cruel war which is behind us, became a symbol of demolition, crime and hatred.

We had an opportunity to reconstruct this bridge immediately, but as administration of one, so called east part of the town. Such construction would take away from this beautiful bridge all those values made through five centuries in the souls of its citizens regardless the religion and nation. Therefore, I made a decision that the Bridge would not be constructed without joint participation of Serbs and Croats and as yet in 1996 I refused a concrete proposition of the President Demirel that Turkey should independently construct the Old Bridge . In this way, I prevented the possibility to make the Old Bridge a symbol of one nationality and one part of at that time divided town and offered the whole project as a symbol which will join all nationalities in BiH and many friendly countries.

This idea was supported by Unesco and the World Bank as well as many other countries and leaders we invited to participate in this international project.

I was convinced that all people inhabiting the area of ex Yugoslavia were strongly emotionally connected to the contours of the Old Bridge because for centuries, in BiH and abroad, it was a symbol of joining beauty and durability. This exhibition, as a peace mission of the town through the cities of South-East Europe and further is exactly developing the idea of re-establishing broken communication. Through joint reconstruction of the Old Bridge and its surrounding parts, we are restoring human values and norms overcoming religion and ethnic barriers. We hope that this noble effort will successfully achieve its goals and that the Bridge will be a true symbol of peace. This brochure shows chronology of all important events from 1995 to 2003 and contribution of many people in construction of the Old Bridge as a world monument of peace.

Safet Oručević
Director