This jewel of Turkish architecture provided the inspiration for the acclaimed book The Bridge on the Drina by Yugoslavia's only Nobel-prizewinning author, Ivo Andric.

[4] Tensions rose in the first days of March, when results of the 1992 Bosnian independence referendum were announced, although they did not lead to actual violence.

In Višegrad, as in a number of other communities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the ethnic composition of the police force was a source of open dispute in the run-up to the Bosnian War.

Bosnian Muslim men in Višegrad then organised themselves into a defence group, and around the same time a paramilitary unit from rump Yugoslavia arrived in the nearby village of Dobrun.

Despite vastly exaggerated claims from the media in the Yugoslav capital Belgrade, they could call on only around 100 local Bosnian Muslim police and perhaps several dozen armed members of the Patriotic League – a paramilitary group which was the predecessor of the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (ARBiH).

While minor skirmishes may have continued for up to a week after the initial seizure of the town on 7 April, the Bosnian Serb forces asserted effective control over the area within 48 hours.

A local Bosnian Muslim, Murat Šabanović, took control of the hydroelectric dam upstream from the town and threatened to blow it up with explosives.

The Bosnian Serb forces attempted to negotiate via radio, but after this failed they assaulted the power station and captured Šabanović, discovering that he did not possess any explosives.

[9] On 15 June, 45 Bosnian Muslim civilians deported from Višegrad were killed by Serb forces at a location near Paklenik, close to the village of Kalimanići in Sokolac municipality.