[9] The Old Bridge, a UNESCO World Heritage Site,[10] commissioned by Suleiman the Magnificent in the 16th century, is one of Bosnia and Herzegovina's most visited landmarks, and is considered an exemplary piece of Islamic architecture in the Balkans.

[11][12][13][14] Human settlements on the river Neretva, between Mount Hum and the Velež Mountain, have existed since prehistory, as witnessed by discoveries of fortified enceintes and cemeteries.

Since Mostar was on the trade route between the Adriatic and the mineral-rich regions of central Bosnia, the settlement began to spread to the right bank of the river.

[15] The earliest documentary reference to Mostar as a settlement dates from 3 April 1452, when Ragusans from Dubrovnik wrote to their fellow countrymen in the service of Serbian Despot Đorđe Branković to say that Vladislav Hercegović had turned against his father Stjepan and occupied the town of Blagaj and other places, including “Duo Castelli al ponte de Neretua.”.

[21] Austria-Hungary took control over Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1878 and ruled the region until the aftermath of World War I in 1918, when it became part of the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs and then Yugoslavia.

Skilled workers, both men and women, entered the work force and the social and demographic profile of the city was broadened dramatically; between 1945 and 1980, Mostar's population grew from 18,000 to 100,000.

Commercial buildings in the functionalist style appeared on the historic eastern side of the city as well, replacing more intimate timber constructions that had survived since Ottoman times.

An economically sustainable plan to preserve the old town of Mostar was implemented by the municipality, which drew thousands of tourists from the Adriatic coast and invigorated the economy of the city.

[27] On 7 June the Croatian Army (HV) launched an offensive code named Operation Jackal, the objective of which was to relieve Mostar and break the JNA siege of Dubrovnik.

[citation needed] A monumental project to rebuild the Old Bridge, which was destroyed during the Bosnian War by HVO, to the original design, and restore surrounding structures and historic neighbourhoods was initiated in 1999 and mostly completed by spring 2004.

The money for this reconstruction was donated by Spain [citation needed] (who had a sizable contingent of peacekeeping troops stationed in the surrounding area during the conflict), the United States, Turkey, Italy, the Netherlands, and Croatia.

Also in July 2004, the Stari Grad Agency was launched to operate and maintain the restored buildings, including the Old Bridge complex, and promote Mostar as a cultural and tourist destination.

The February 1996 Mostar Agreement led to the adoption of the Interim Statute of the city the same month, and to a 1-year period of EUAM, headed by former Bremen mayor Hans Koschnick, until early 1997.

In October 2019 Irma Baralija won a case against Bosnia and Herzegovina at the European Court of Human Rights for the lack of elections in Mostar.

Finally, a political deal, agreed under international mediation in June 2020, enabled legislative amendments in July 2020 and the conduct of the vote in Mostar on 20 December 2020.

Administrators and bureaucrats – many of them indigenous people who converted from Christianity to Islam – founded mosque complexes that generally included Koranic schools, soup kitchens or markets.

The Old Bazaar, Kujundziluk, is named after the goldsmiths who traditionally created and sold their wares on this street, and still sells authentic paintings and copper or bronze carvings of the Stari Most, pomegranates (the natural symbol of Herzegovina), or the stećaks (medieval tombstones).

Magazine Most, along with Šantić's Poetry Evenings, was most important outlet for cultural and artistic production in the city and the region, offering space for upstart poets and writers.

Finally, in February 2004 OHR Paddy Ashdown imposed via its Bonn Powers the new City Statute and related amendments to the BiH Election Law and cantonal and Federation Constitutions.

[71][72] Ashdown abolished the six municipalities that were divided equally among Bosniaks and Croats and replaced them with six electoral units,[73] ridding Mostar of duplicate institutions and costs.

Bešlić thus remained as acting mayor for eight additional years, during which he affirmed that he considered resigning multiple times,[76] also due to his deteriorating health.

[77] During this time, he shared the administrative duties with Izet Šahović, head of the Mostar City's Finance Department, a bureaucrat and member of the Bosniak Party of Democratic Action (SDA).

For two full mandates, Bešlić and Šahović have decided together how to disburse Mostar's yearly 30 million euro budget, without any legislative oversight or public transparency.

The situation has been denounced by multiple NGOs, which have pointed at the SDA-HDZ power-sharing as the source of the mal-administration of Mostar and the recurrent problems with trash collection, water treatment, and continued ethnic duplication of the city services.

Between October 2012 and May 2013 Deputy High Representative Roderick W. Moore launched an 8-months mediation effort that produced a compromise framework aimed at merging the city areas (and central zone) into multi-ethnic voting districts.

A second mediation attempt led by US and UK ambassadors to BiH, Maureen Cormack and Edward Ferguson, and based on a model with a single city-wide electoral district, also failed [in 2017].

In 2018, the two main parties HDZ BiH and SDA autonomously negotiated a compromise solution, based only on a formula for the election of the councillors from each city area along the "one man, one vote" principle, which would be later taken up in the June 2020 agreement.

Today, the schools in Mostar and throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina are a site of struggle between ethno-national political elites[85] in ways that reveals the precarious position of youth in the volatile nation building processes[86] A partial exception to divided education is Gimnazija Mostar (also known as "Stara gimnazija") that implemented joint school administration and some joint student courses.

[87] The country's higher education reform and the signing of the Bologna Process have forced both universities to put aside their rivalry to some extent and try to make themselves more competitive on a regional level.

[94] Mostar is twinned with:[95] Una-Sana  Central Bosnia Posavina  Herzegovina-Neretva Tuzla  West Herzegovina Zenica-Doboj  Sarajevo Bosnian Podrinje Canton 10