Herzegovina · 5 min read

Bridge and Source

Vrelo Field Notes · 12 July 2026

The emerald-green Neretva seen from the Old Bridge in Mostar, a red raft drifting over the pale rocky bed with bazaar terraces on the bank — The Neretva runs mineral-green beneath the Old Bridge, Mostar.

Two kinds of water hold this chapter. In Mostar the Neretva runs a deep, mineral green beneath the single stone leap of the Old Bridge, clear enough to show the pale rock on its bed; rafts drift under the arch and the bazaar copper catches the light on the banks.

A cypress-lined road running toward limestone hills in the dry Herzegovinian light — Cypress and karst — the dry light on the drive between river and spring.

A short drive south, the water changes character entirely. At Blagaj the Buna does not so much flow as arrive — erupting cold and full-throated from the foot of a limestone cliff, one of the most powerful karst springs in Europe. A whitewashed dervish house, built into the rock four centuries ago, sits at the exact place where the spring opens from the dark of the cave into daylight. You sit above green water with a coffee and feel the temperature drop off the stone.

The whitewashed dervish house at Blagaj built into the limestone cliff, beside the turquoise Buna spring where the water opens from the cave into daylight — The dervish house at Blagaj, where the Buna opens from the cliff.

This is the register the whole collection is named for: the source made visible, cold and clear, at the foot of the mountain. Bridge and spring — one built, one given — a day's walk apart.

Riverside restaurant terraces along the clear green Buna at Blagaj, ducks on the water below the limestone cliff — Riverside terraces on the Buna, below the spring.

On the route

Days like this are part of Journey I — The Karst Spring.

View the journey →

Stari Most Table, Mostar Villa Buna, Blagaj