The Bridge on the Drina

At Višegrad, the River Drina’s banks “spread out to form valleys with level or rolling stretches of fertile land” surrounded by “dark steep mountains” (13). At a bend in the river, there is a “great clean-cut stone bridge” (13) that unites the two parts of the road to Sarajevo. It connects the small town to Bosnia, Serbia, and “other parts of the Turkish Empire” (14). The River Rzav also runs through Višegrad, where it joins the Drina and is spanned by a wooden bridge that is “without beauty and without history” (14). The middle of the stone bridge widens into a kapia of two equal terraces; one side features a monument to the bridge builder and a small fountain. This is where a coffee maker sits and sells his wares. The bridge is at the center of the townspeople’s lives and stories. The town is home to Muslims and Christians alike.

Rade the Mason, who built the bridge, was forced to find two twins and “wall them into the central pier of the bridge” (16) in order to warn away people trying to hinder the building. Their mother’s milk still flows through the “finely carved blind windows” (16).