With the arrival of the railway, the Austo-Hungarians made a conscious decision to shift the heart of Mostar to the Trg Musala area. No building was more symbolic of this move than the splendid 1892 Hotel Neretva with its layered yellow-and-red stonework and neo-Moorish design. Sadly it was already a ruinous shell at the end of the 1990s conflict and since then more has collapsed, leaving only stabilised wall fragments.
Across the river, the Hotel Bristol displays old photos of how its competitor once looked.
