Blagaj a small town just a few kilometres away from Mostar will tell you two different stories of fortesses, kings and queens, Turkish houses and beys. It will show you rocks, stones and clear water, tell you about death and life and love.

The medieval Blagaj was a part of the fortress Blagaj fort (or Stjepan grad) and on the hill above Blagaj, was the seat of Herzegovinian nobleman, Stjepan Vukčić, and the birthplace of Bosnian queen Katarina Kosača-Kotromanić. But with the arrival of the Ottomans in the 14th century Blagaj city started to develop itself more. The city had seven mosques, two hostels for travellers, four musafirhana (guest houses), a madrasa (Bosnian: medresa), two maktab, seven mills and four stone bridges on the river Buna.

An Orthodox Church was built in 1893 and a Roman Catholic church in 1908. Beside these buildings there is one standing out, Tekkija – the dervish monastery built in the 16. century. It is built into the bottem of the hill next to one of the largest springs Buna. Even today it is used for ritual purpose by the dervish Sufi brotherhood. The white walls of the house, the many rooms looking like balconies, the whole architecture of the building mirroring in the green water of the Buna river are breathtaking.