Mostar is famous for the spectacular Stari Most (Old Bridge), but did you know that this city also has a cool alternative side? You can find a decent amount of street art in this city, thanks to the International Street Arts Festival that is organized here since 2012. The canvas for the artists: the war ruins. In this blog post, I will show you where to find street art in Mostar.
A guide for where to find street art in Mostar
Staklena Banka (Sniper Tower)
The Staklena Banka (Glass Bank) once served as a bank in the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (1943 – 1992). In the early nineties, the republic disintegrated and the Bosnian civil war broke out. The tower was given a new function: the Sniper Tower, referring to the snipers who shot many Bosnian Muslims from this tower. Nowadays the tower is abandoned. Street art artists have taken advantage of this abandoned spot. Some artworks refer to social issues or the war, others were made out of artistic love. There is also street art in the area around the tower, for example at the small construction site in front of the tower and around the Spanish square.
Street art on the walls of the Sniper Tower.
Street art around the Sniper Tower.
Murals along the frontline
If you follow the Bulevar Revolucije, it will take you to the Alekse Šantića Street. This street was also part of the frontline and the war damage is still today very visible. I crossed buildings without a roof, buildings that consisted of only a few walls standing up and walls riddled with bullet holes. Luckily, there is also a positive note: murals! In the area around the youth center OKC Abrašević you can find some nice murals. When I walked through this street I did not see any tourists. It seems that most tourists stay on the other side of the river visiting the old center. Personally, I found the contrast with ruins and colorful murals very interesting to see.
Open-air gallery around the bus station
I only discovered this part in the morning that I traveled from Mostar to Dubrovnik. My boyfriend and I were on our way to the bus station very early in the morning. Unfortunately, my dearest boyfriend had read the ticket wrong and we arrived an hour early at the abandoned bus station of Mostar. We decided to kill the time by walking along Maršala Tita. Surprisingly, the walls along this street showed a long series of colorful street art. Suddenly, I did not mind at all arriving too early at the bus station. Otherwise, I would not have seen this. My favorite was the mossy painting of the two giants.
I took these photos around 6 am in the morning, that is why they are a bit dark.
Are you also a fan of street art?
