Latin Bridge (Bos. Latinska ćuprija, named Principov most - "Princip Bridge" durng the Yugoslavian era), is a historic bridge over the River Miljacka in Sarajevo.
The northern end of the bridge was the site of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria by Gavrilo Princip, in 1914, which became a casus belli of World War I.
The bridge got it name after the nearby Latin, i.e. Dubrovnik trade colony. Judging by its foundation, it is the oldest among the preserved bridges in the city.
The census of the Sanjak of Bosnia from 1541 mentions the bridge on this spot, built by the leather-worker Hussein, son of Sirmerd.
This first bridge seems to have been made of wood, because the court record from 1565 witness that the stone bridge was built here by eminent citizen of Sarajevo Ali-Aini Bey. Terrible flood on November 15, 1791 badly damaged the bridge and its reconstruction was financed by the Sarajevo merchant Abdullah-aga Briga.
"Briga died before the bridge was rebuilt, but he left in testament orders that work on the Bridge would be finished.
On the bridge was placed Tarih which read:
"Consider, and do not remember rich people as ugly, because they are after their death remembered by their legacy",
which was later removed and submitted to the National Museum on "guarding". The bridge is called the Latin Ćuprija (in Turkish Frenkluk cupri) at a nearby Catholic district on the left bank, which is called Latinluk. It was founded by the Dubrovnik masters who came to work in Sarajevo, and later to be mainly populated by Catholic population.
Someone worked out that, the year when it was rebuilt can be obtained from the numerical values in the word 'Briga' it is 1213 which by Islamic calendar equals the year of the reconstruction 1798/99.
The bridge has four arches and rests on three strong pillars and the embankment; it is built of stone and gypsum and the two relieving openings, 'eyes' in the mass above pillars are so characteristic that they can be seen in the seal of Sarajevo.
Because of heavy traffic at the time of Austria-Hungary, the pavements on consoles were added to the bridge.