Vushtrri's old bridge, a bridge that lost its river

A bridge with no river has something of an empty stage about it. Vushtrri’s has been that way since the 20th century, when the Sitnica changed course and left it stranded in open ground, and for me that’s precisely its charm. With no water underneath you see the whole structure, end to end, and you understand how it was built.

Nine arches and a stone hump

The Ministry of Culture calls it Ura e Vjetër e Gurit, the old stone bridge, and places it west of town on the old road from Vushtrri to Mitrovica. It dates it to the 14th century and explains that, on the middle reaches of the Sitnica, it linked the two banks. It’s asymmetrical and humpbacked, with nine arches of smooth dressed stone. Molten lead was used in the joints between the blocks, and the deck, 135 metres long and 6 wide, is cobbled.

Locals, the record says, simply call it the old bridge or the stone bridge. Another author it quotes credits the structure with both architectural and hydraulic engineering value, which is a fair summary of what you’re looking at.

Who built it?

Here the sources the Ministry gathers don’t agree, and I find that more interesting than picking one. Two authors credit the Vojinović family and say the bridge started with five arches, to which four more were added. Another notes that the first bridge’s pointed arches were reddish or pinkish stone, while the later additions are grey. And an Ottoman archive from May 1791 credits Mahmut Pasha. The Ministry itself concludes that the pointed arches and the stonework belong to the style of Ottoman bridges.

The 2008 Law 03/L-039 sides with the first version in its wording, naming the structure the medieval or old Vojinović bridge in its list of Special Zones, and it’s the only Special Zone in the municipality, according to the OSCE’s 2018 profile.

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Protection and visiting

The Ministry has given it permanent protection since 1949, plus temporary protection orders renewed between 2012 and 2019, on top of the Special Zone. There are no published hours, no fee and no visiting rules that I could find, so I treat it as what it is, an open-air crossing you walk over.

My way of seeing it would be to cross slowly over the cobbles, then drop down to one side to count the arches and look for the change in stone colour. Then, about 600 metres away, Vushtrri fortress, and that’s your morning done. If you collect bridges, the Prizren stone bridge is the next one for your list, while the Mitrovica region guide covers everything else up here. One practical note for anyone flying in from the UK, Kosovo uses the euro, so it’s euros rather than pounds for anything you buy along the way. For the longest of these bridges, the Terzi Bridge near Gjakova, 192.8 m with eleven arches, you do need to head west.

If you are short on time, see the best tours in Vushtrri Stone Bridge and pick one that fits your day.

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