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Bridge on the Neretva | |
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| Coordinates | 43°39′15″N17°45′44″E / 43.654111°N 17.762222°E /43.654111; 17.762222 |
| Crossed | Neretva |
| Locale | Jablanica |
| Official name | Memorial Bridge on the Neretva |
| Owner | Municipal Council of Jablanica |
| Maintained by | J.U. Muzej "Bitka za ranjenike na Neretvi" Jablanica |
| Heritage status | National Monument of Bosnia and Herzegovina byCommission to preserve national monuments of Bosnia and Herzegovina 13 July 2009 |
| Website | www |
| Characteristics | |
| Design | Inverted bowstring truss 1888-1943; Deck truss 1943-1968 |
| Material | Iron, steel |
| Pier construction | stone, concrete |
| Total length | 78m |
| Width | 5m |
| Height | 8m collapsed |
| Water depth | 2-3m |
| Traversable? | no |
| No. of spans | 1 |
| Piers in water | no |
| Rail characteristics | |
| No. oftracks | 1 |
| History | |
| Constructed by | Austria-Hungary; Germans;Energoinvest |
| Construction end | 1888 |
| Dedicated | to the "Battle for the Wounded" Memorial of theBattle on the Neretva |
| Rebuilt |
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| Collapsed | 8 March 1943 |
| Destroyed | 4 March 1943, 1968 |
| Replaced by |
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| Location | |
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TheBridge on the Neretva is the memorialbridge on theNeretva river, inJablanica,Bosnia and Herzegovina. Bridge is part of the Memorial of theBattle on the Neretva dedicated to the famousWorld War II battle, fought betweenYugoslav partisans andAxis forces, as part of theFourth Enemy Offensive in February–March 1943. The battle is also known as the "Battle for the Wounded on the Neretva" or simply the "Battle for the Wounded".
The bridge is part of the historical cultural landscape, that houses the Museum of the Battle for the Wounded on the Neretva river, in town of Jablanica, and number of smaller memorial sites and monuments, scattered across the municipality Jablanica and neighboring municipalities territories. The museum was opened byJosip Broz Tito on 12 November 1978 to commemorate the 35th anniversary of the battle. It has been proclaimed anational monument of Bosnia and Herzegovina, by theCommission to preserve national monuments on 13 July 2009, as published in theOfficial Gazette of Bosnia and Herzegovina, no. 97/09.[1][2]
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The bridge was built in 1888. The iron-lattice structure was first commissioned and made in Hungary and was planned to bridge the Neretva river in Jablanica. By mistake, it was made shorter by 4 meters, so it was moved to Mostar and installed as the Bridge of Emperor and KingFranz Joseph I. A new bridge for Jablanica was commissioned in England and later erected. The bridge that was built in 1888, with a linear grid and an inverted arch on the underside of the bridge. The arch range was 78 m and thearch arrow was 10 m. It was supported by stone-built walls on both banks, and the depth of the bridge iron-lattice structure at the points of support was 3 meters.
Between 1 March and 4 March 1943, the Partisans demolished all the bridges on the Neretva andRama, from Karaula to Ostrožac. Between 7 March and 8 March, in just 18 hours, a wooden provisional bridge, 56 m long and 2.5 m wide, was built.
In August 1943, the Germans built a new bridge, which was a spatial grid of rectangular cross-section. The span of the bridge was 78 m and the height of the grid 8 m. The width of the bridge was 5 m. The bridge relied on existing stone-built supports. The grid height at the support points was smaller and was 5 m on either side of the bridge. This bridge was again demolished in 1968 during the filming of theOscar-nominated film "Battle on the Neretva" by directorVeljko Bulajić.
As part of the project for the Museum of the Battle for the Wounded on the Neretva River in Jablanica, a reconstruction project for the Memorial Bridge was completed in May 1977. The existing latticework of the demolished railway bridge, which after its demolition in 1968 fell to the left bank of the Neretva, has remained to this day with the necessary works on protection against further collapse and deterioration.
The bridging of the Neretva river between the pedestrian paths on the right bank toward the existing part laying on the left bank is done by a construction of the missing part of the bridge. This new part is placed from the right bank almost horizontally, with a slight slant towards the part of the bridge on the left bank, and is attached to the new concrete foundations in the Neretva riverbed and on the slope of the right bank. Along the new part of the bridge, wooden transverse beams are laid upstream, over which there is a wooden bridge floor. This wooden part of the memorial was used by visitors to cross from right to left bank, echoing and honoring crossing during the battle.
However, in 1991, the swollen Neretva river ripped off entire new section of the bridge, both steel and wooden elements. A major reconstruction project has been prepared and theBosnia and Herzegovina Electricity Company pledged to finance and work to rebuild the bridge.
The 1969Oscar-nominated motion pictureThe Battle of Neretva depicts these events.
Alistair MacLean's 1968 thriller novelForce 10 From Navarone, subsequently filmed, also brings forth the fight of outnumbered Partisans against Germans andChetniks, and the blowing up of the Neretva bridge. But the actual historical events are not in play, and the story is entirely fictional.