A Trip to Blagaj [Part 1/3]: Arrival

The old town of Blagaj is a small town, only a couple of miles south from Mostar. Blagaj is situated at the spring of the Buna river and a historical tekke (tekija or Dervish monastery).

The source of the Buna river is a strong karstic spring. The river flows west for approximately 9 kilometres and joins the Neretva near the village Buna. The historic site of the Old Blagaj Fort, on the hill above Blagaj, was previously visited by us, and you can view those images here.

This is a multi part series. Other parts include:

Part One: Arrival

Part Two: The Old Town

Part Three: River Cave

click on the images for a bigger view

The first image shows the river Buna, emerging out of the deep caves in the background. The newly renovated tekke in the left side of the image.

But before I show you our destination, let me show you a couple of images along the way. Nature is here is in fresh bloom, and a lot of young leaves and pale greens can be seen everywhere.

There are a lot of bird and flower species in this region, and while this historic center, that we were visiting, doesn't house many of them, you can actually go on a hike uphill and down the river stream to discover a lot more.

Two bridges (a wooden and a stone one) make a path across the river and lead to various cafes and restaurants.

Here is a small sneak peek of the cave where the river emerges from. But more on that in the final part of this series.

Young fig leaves with little figs being born out of them, are located along the river stream up to the old Town.

This stone bridge has been recently named a national monument.

 

As I said, there are a lots of restaurants here, build right next to the river. Sometimes, when the water is higher the lower parts of the restaurants can't be used, because they flood. Of course there is lot of space above for lunch and drinks.

On the other side of the river, you will find a restaurant that is higher up from the ground. We visited around 5 in the afternoon on a work week, and of course everything was empty. I made that choice deliberately in order to get more intimate images. Usually you will find many tourists here.

We arrive to the end of part one of this series. In the next part we will visit this big white house you can see in the image that follows. It's part of the old Town of Blagaj and the aforementioned tekke. But more on that in part two!