2018Europa - Bridges - First Day Cover

The bridge across the Drina in Visegrad represents the masterpiece of the bridge building. It was built in the period from 1571 to 1577, according to the wishes of Mehmed-pasha Sokolovic. Mehmed-pasha Sokolovic was born in Sokolovici near small place Rudo, where he was separated from his parents as a boy and taken to Turkey. At that time, there was a custom known as "Blood Tax", as a form of regular taxation in the Ottoman Empire, which involved the forcible transfer of Christian children to Turkey where they were converted to Islam and educated in their military schools where they became Janizary, elite soldiers of Turkish Empire. He was a great vizier at the time of the three Sultans.