Goat’s Bridge

After asking the locals where’s the best place for me to go for a run they told me I had to go down the Miljacka and find the Goat’s bridge. I first asuumed I didn’t hear them correctly, the Goat’s bridge? Like a goat? The animal? They instead looked at me like I was crazy, yes the Goat’s bridge.

I laughed and asked how did a bridge get the name Goat’s bridge? Did a goat once own it? What’s the story behind this?

They told me that there are folk legends about the origin of the bridge itself. The oldest and most popular legend says that there were two brother sheperds, Mehmed and Sinan, tending to their goats. One day the poor shepherd noticed that his animals would brush around some bushes quite often, when he went to go see why his goats where there, it is said that he found a pot of gold. With that money it is said that the brothers split the gold equally, and that Mehmed built this bridge after finishing school because he wanted to give back to the place tht helped him achieve and become a better person he built the bridge. While it is said Sinan built a mosque in Bistrik, that later on got known as the Kecedzija mosque (Kec in Turkish means goat).

The bridge is abou 42 meters long and 4.75 meters wide. The bridge later on proved very special and important because it connected Sarajevo with the rest of the trading world. Today the Goat’s bridge is a beautiful place.

Before getting to the bridge you have a nice walkway named Dariva. I thought to myself as I was running down the Dariva, so close to the city yet soo far away.