Andrićgrad

`Of all the things created and built by humankind as a part of life’s effort, nothing in my mind is better or worthier than bridges.` Ivo Andrić

Andricgrad is a touristic, cultural, administrative and educational complex situated on a peninsula between rivers Drina and Rzav, built and based on an idea and effort of a film director Emir Kusturica. Complex Andrićgrad is about 300 meters away of an old bridge of Mehmed-paša Sokolović, better known under the name `The Bridge on the Drina` in Višegrad. Andrićgrad here serves to connect the unsettled historical periods in this area, promote tourism, art and culture, spread equality between people, spread literacy and noble behavior and connect people, regions and the world. An immense statue of Ivo Andrićstands on the central square. Walking across the street of a symbolic name `The Street of young Bosnia`, you go back in the past.

Andrićgrad is a finished project of a medieval town made of stone inspired by the works and characters of the Nobel Prize winner Ivo Andrić. It is, in fact, a vision of how Višegrad could have looked if it was not bypassed by renaissance and other historical periods. As for the architecture of the town, it is a mixture of different epochs and styles which were alternating during the history of this area: byzantine style, ottoman period, renaissance, classicism.

About fifty buildings in town, made out of stone, are shops, bookstores, cinema, a film school, hotel, jewelry shop, souvenir shop and bakery. There are two squares in the town, Nikola Tesla square,where the monument to Ivo Andrić is located, and Petar Petrović Njegoš square, behind which is a beautiful church visible even from the streets of Višegrad. In the gallery, little temple of art, there are about 200 valuable paintings of the most famous painters of Serbia, Republika Srpska and Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Fulfil your enjoyment by reading a book and sipping a glass of wine from the bookstore `Ili Ili`, or treat yourself with delicious `ćevapi` of `Ćevapdžinica Kasaba`. Walking through pedestrian zone you can visit the AndrićInstitute with many cultural programs, Renaissance theatre, Ivo Andrić Institute with the center for Slavic studies, and also the Academy of Fine Arts. In the Andrić Institute, aside from science cabinets, there will be an Andrić memorial-room, a bookstore and a ceremonial hall for a hundred visitors. On repertoire of the cinema `Dolly Bell` are leading films of the world, of independent and local production. The pearl of the Andrićgrad is the Church of the Holy emperor Lazar and Holy Serbian martyrs, modified replica of the middle age monastery Dečani, the famous orthodox monastery in Kosovo.

When you come to Višegrad, aside Andrićgrad, visit numerous places and monuments which are part of its turbulent history. The first thing you have to see is the bridge of Mehmed-paša Sokolović `Višegradska ćuprija`, for more than four centuries is the central point that binds lives of the people living in Višegrad and most important happenings in the town. During the day you will mostly find a lot of tourists on the bridge, but in the evenings you can see people of different age walking across the bridge. At just a few kilometers from the border, in Republika Srpska, on the road to Višegrad, in picturesque mountain area, in the valley of the river Rzav, there is a beautiful monastery Dobrun, dedicated to `Annunciation`. Famous frescoes, the fresco of emperor Dušan with his wife Jelena and their son Uroš and the fresco with the founder of the monastery, the head of the county, Pribil which are in the monastery, are preserved to this day.

Andrićgrad will be in the future the place of gathering, assemblies, studies, festivals, vacations, meetings, memories and friendship.