The Roman Catholics have no church in Mostar.  Service is performed at the Austrian Consulate, and also at a convent, about two miles distant, where the Bishop of Mostar resides.  This circumstance has led to the concentration of the Catholic community in that neighbourhood.  The Catholic school for boys adjoins the convent; it is, however, thinly attended, and but indifferently conducted.

The British Consulate being closed in consequence of the absence of the Vice-Consul, M. Zohrab, who was acting as temporary Consul at Bosna Serai, I took up my abode at a khan overlooking the river.  The situation was pretty, and the house newly restored; but this did not deprive it of some relics of animal life, which somewhat disturb the equanimity of the new comer, but which he soon learns to regard with indifference.  Descending the stairs, and passing through the stable, which is, as is usually the case, immediately beneath the lodging rooms, we must turn sharply to the right; and, after clambering up some rough and broken steps, we arrive at the main street, which runs for about a mile through the centre of the town, varied only by arched gateways placed at intervals along its course.  Against the first of these a Turkish sentry indolently leans, if he be not seated on the kerbstone at the corner.  Passing through this we come to a second gate, where the peaceful traveller, unconscious of offence, is angrily accosted.  The meaning of all this is that he is requested to throw away and stamp upon his cigarette, the old tower on the left being used as a magazine.  Round it a weak attempt at a place d’armes is apparent, Omer Pacha having ordered some of the neighbouring houses to be pulled down.  Nor was this done before it was necessary, a fire having broken out a short time before in its vicinity.  On that occasion the inhabitants destroyed a few houses, and imagined the fire to be extinguished.  The wind rose, and it broke out again, taking the direction of the magazine.  Upon this, the whole population took to the country, and the prisoners, who were located close by, escaped in the general confusion.  Had it not been providentially extinguished, the place of Mostar would have known it no more.  The prison is a plain white house, which does not look at all as if it had ever been the sort of place to have long defied the ingenuity of a Jack Sheppard, or even an accomplished London house-breaker of our own day.

The tower to which allusion has been made is built on the eastern side, and immediately above the beautiful bridge which spans the Narenta, and for which Mostar[K] has ever been famous.  The Turks attribute its erection to Suleyman the Magnificent, but it was probably built by the Emperor Trajan or Adrian, since the very name of the town would imply the existence of a bridge in very early days.  The Turkish inscriptions, which may be traced upon the abutments at the E. end of the bridge, probably refer to some subsequent repairs.