Existing Historical Foundation System of Two Old Bridges from the Ottoman Period in Bosnia and Herzegovina
The bridge was built between 1571 and 1577 over the river Drina on the road linking Bosnia with Istanbul. The construction of the bridge was entrusted to the great court architect Koca Mi'mar Sinan (1490-1588), not only the leading architect of the Ottoman Empire but one of the greatest builders in the entire world. The benefactor who funded the construction was Mehmed pasa Sokolovic, Grand Vezier to three sultans from 1565 to 1579: Suleyman the Magnificent, Selim II and Murat III. Mehmed pasa Sokolovic was born in the village of Sokolovici near Visegrad (NMA a). The bridge is known to have been repaired in c. 1664, and again in 1875 and 1911. The bridge has experienced a number of major floods, of which the worst was in 1896, when the level of the Drina was 1.60 m above the bridge. When the Austrians withdrew from Visegrad in 1914 one of the openings of the bridge was destroyed, and the following year the Serb army destroyed another one when retreating.