Sights in Mostar - Croatia and Slovenia - page 671

damage here (aside from a few stray bullet holes) emphasizes that it was the Croats laying
siege to the Muslims of Mostar. You'll also notice some glitzy new shopping centers and
more pizza and pasta restaurants than ć evap č i ć i joints (in other words, even the food over
here is more Croatian than Bosnian).
Looking at a map, you'll notice that many streets on this side of town are named for
Croatian cities (Dubrova č ka, Splitska, Vukovarska) or historical figures (Kneza Branimira,
Kralja Tomislava, and Kralja Petra Krešimira—for the dukes who first united the Croats
in the ninth and tenth centuries). This side of town also has several remnants of Mostar's
brief period of Habsburg rule (1878-1918). During this time, the empire quickly expanded
what had been a sleepy Ottoman backwater, laying out grand boulevards and erecting gen-
teel buildings that look like they'd be at home in Vienna.
All streets converge at the big roundabout (about a 15-minute walk from the Old Town)
called the Rondo, which is a good place to get oriented to this neighborhood. Overlooking
this lively intersection is the stately Hrvatski Dom (“Croatia House”) cultural center. In this
partoftown,noticehoweventhestreetsignsarepoliticallycharged: Centar signspointedly
direct traffic away from the (Bosniak) Old Town, and many road signs point toward Široki
Brijeg—a Croat stronghold in western Herzegovina.
The adjacent Park Zrinjevac is a pleasant place to stroll, and was the site of an in-
famously ill-fated attempt at reconciliation. In the early 2000s, idealistic young Mostarians
formed the Urban Movement of Mostar, which searched for a way to connect the still-feud-
ing Catholic and Muslim communities. As a symbol of their goals, they chose Bruce Lee,
the deceased kung-fu movie star, beloved by both Croats and Bosniaks for his characters'
honorable struggle against injustice. A life-size bronze statue of Lee was unveiled with fan-
fare in this park in November of 2005—but was almost immediately vandalized. The statue
was repaired, and may or may not have been returned to its pedestal (which you'll still find
in the park).
Severalinterestingsightslieclosetothisroundabout.AblocktowardtheOldTownfrom
the Rondo (on Kralja Višeslava Humskog), look for the big Muslim cemetery with tomb-
stones from the early 1990s. These are the graves of those killed during the first round of
fighting, when the Croats and Bosniaks teamed up to fight the Serbs.
If you head from the Rondo down Kneza Branimira (across from the park), you'll enjoy
an inviting boulevard shaded by plane trees. When first built, this street was called Štefan-
ijino Šetalište —“Stéphanie'sPromenade,”aftertheBelgianprincesswhomarriedAustria's
Archduke Rudolf (the heir apparent of the Habsburg Empire until he died in a mysterious
murder-suicidepactwithhismistress).Partwaydownthestreetontheleftistherecommen-
ded Pivnica Štefanijino Šetalište, a good place for a microbrew or a meal.