The Incredible Walled City of Pocitelj and Its Weird Abandoned Restoration | Bosnia and Herzegovina

Today on our Big Bosnian Road Trip we are in the beautiful town of Pocitelj. This UNESCO world heritage site is a real hidden gem in the Herzegovina region close to the town of Capljina and the Croatian border. This charming walled Ottoman city is home to a 16th century mosque and countless little stone streets for exploring. We also barely saw another soul when we were there, which is always a plus for the introverts! We visit pasina tabija and bijela tabija (the fortress/castle) and the strange abandoned conservation project. Our other videos from this region in Bosnia and Herzegovina: Capljina (Where we stayed)    • 5 Days in Capljina | Big Bosnian Road Trip   Trebinje was our base for a month, but here are our first impressions:    • First Time in Trebinje | Herzegovina's Cha...   Stolac was a great place to visit, and we actually had too much for one video!:    • Stolac Abandoned Bone Hospital and Muslim ...      • Sleeping Inside a National Monument! Stola...   Watch the Big Bosnian Road Trip from the beginning:    • Big Bosnian Road Trip   Please like and subscribe! Youtube is still just a hobby for us, but it would be AMAZING to upgrade. ________________________________________ Who is Celeste and who is that guy? Hi! We’re Celeste and Jason, a married couple from Western Canada, and we’ve been travelling for almost 4 years! Like a lot of people, I lost my job in 2020. This was the second time in just 5 years for me (Celeste) so I decided that I needed to find a way to be less expendable. My choices were: Spend two years going back to school to retrain as a social worker Spend two years on the dream I rolled the dice on the dream and was able to build my own business that allowed me to be a digital nomad. Here’s exactly how I did it:    • How to Travel AND Make Money - Become A Di...   It took two years to turn a profit, and in the meantime we sold everything we owned. That guy quit his job, and we stored our last 3 boxes with his brother, before we left in the fall of 2022 - a few days before our first dollar from my business even hit our bank account. (Insane looking back, don’t do that!) Our goal (and pledge to our extended family) was to spend one year on the road and then return to normal life. Secretly we were hoping for two. A medical emergency with our pocket-sized teen daughter forced us to winter back in Canada in 2025 after 3 years of travelling. We were thankful, grateful, blessed and super duper lucky to get back to travelling in September of 2026 with much improved health. Thank you so much for being here! We are so excited to be living our dream and sharing it with you. In this episode: 00:00 In this video 00:26 Driving to Pocitelj and arriving 00:56 First look and plan for today 01:25 Where to stay & what’s in the area 02:00 Parking in Pocitelj 02:55 First impressions and drone of Pocitelj village 03:35 Hajji Alija Mosque c.1563 04:52 Realizing Pocitelj is bigger than we thought 05:18 Hiking to the fortress tower 06:36 Fortress by land and by drone 09:54 Inside the tower and brief history of Pocitelj 11:10 Almost bat time (Bosnian bat montage) 12:00 Sunset day 1 12:20 Day 2 begins. Where to eat 13:35 Hike to Pasina Tabija (Other side of castle) 15:15 UNESCO Doors 16:00 Arriving at the castle 16:37 Inside the abandoned reconstruction project 20:18 Upper part of the fortress reconstruction 21:32 This side of the castle by land and drone 23:15 Amazing architectural details in new construction 24:08 Pocitelj castle picnic 25:35 Spotting our first person 26:40 Walking the town roads - the baby dives into burrs 29:30 View point and general Pocitelj views 30:09 A spectacular cat and sunset