The Bridge on the Drina

A stone bridge from the 16th century, an endowment of Mehmed-pasha Sokolovic, like a mute witness remembers the seeming harmony of different cultures, religions and peoples whereas deep antagonism exists between them. The difference between two civilisations, Eastern and Western, is the most obvious. In the period from its construction until its partial distruction at the beginning of the 20th century, the bridge was the only permanent and unchangeable spot from which all tensions and agitations that provoked conflicts between people, cultures, religions and empires of that time reflected off. That is the very fact that Ivo Andric used to create a fantastic four-hundred-years-long narrative arc of almost crystal clear literary style and thus made the bridge a part of our own lives.