When I read that Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina had a Bruce Lee statue, I quickly added it to the list of things we had to check out during our trip.
I found it quite odd that the martial arts star would be commemorated in Mostar, of all places. It turns out, there are a couple of reasons why.
The Bruce Lee statue is located in Zrinjski City Park. It’s considered life size although its actually an inch shorter than Lee’s actual height.
The statue was unveiled on November 26, 2005 making it the first public monument to Lee unveiled in the world. (A statue in Hong Kong debuted a day later.)
Wikipedia mentions that the statue “is a symbol of solidarity in the ethnically divided city.”
Atlas Obscura corroborates this explanation while also adding that during the ’70s & ’80s, “the youth of Socialist Yugoslavia devoured “kung fu” movies from Hong Kong, and their love was fueled by a steady influx of pirated VHS tapes. Bruce Lee become a cult hero…”
We found the statue soon after entering the park. Besides a couple of brides & grooms taking photos, the park was pretty quiet.
As I took some photos, the kids had fun playing at the playground.
Before we let, I had to pose with the Enter the Dragon star.
