The monument to Mehmed-pasha Sokolovic is set up today in the Street “Druga Podrinjska brigada”, in Visegrad. The municipality is the main organizer of this project.
The monument is facing the bridge on the Drina, and it is located on the promenade from the old bridge to the Andrictown.
The monument will be solemnly opened on Wednesday, 28th June 2017 (Vidovdan), starting at 04:00 pm, as a part of the Vidovdan ceremonies.
Slobodan Pavlovic, who gave Visegrad the monument, and academician Matija Beckovic, will speak at the ceremony of opening.
The Mayor of Visegrad, Mladen Djurevic, thanked Pavlovic for this present.
“The monument reminded us of the history of this region, and we appreciated an impenetrable value of the monument, Visegrad could present itself to tourists with another cultural monument”, stated Djurevic, the Mayor of the Mynicipality .
Mehmed Pasha Sokolovic (1505-1579) was a military leader and the great vizier of the Ottoman Empire. He was born in an Orthodox family in the village of Sokolovici near Visegrad, under the name of Bajica, and as a fifteen year old Serbian boy, in the Turkish custom called “The contribution in blood” he was forcibly taken away from his native Bosnia to Istanbul to become a janissary, the elite Turkish soldier. Later on he would become the officer of the Ottoman army thanks to his skills,and also the commander of the entire naval fleet of the Empire for the Mediterranean. After that, he entered politics as a pasha, and at the top of his power he became the Great Vizier, that is, the prime minister of the Ottoman Empire. He served this function for 15 years, served three Sultans, and at the peak of the power he ordered a bridge to be built on the Drina River in Visegrad, at the same place where he crossed the Drina on the road to Istanbul during the blood dungeon.
In Mehmed Pasha’s biography, it was recorded that he did not live to see Visegrad and the bridge on the Drina. For this reason, the location of the monument to Mehmed pasha Sokolovic is selected symbolically, so that he could “enjoy” the view of his endowment.
