New Bridge, Mitrovica

Description

The New Bridge (also known as Mitrovica Bridge, Ibar River Bridge, Ibar Bridge or by its unofficial name Austerlitz Bridge) is a steel truss bridge crossing the Ibar river in Mitrovica, Kosovo, connecting South Mitrovica and North Mitrovica. The New Bridge has become an iconic symbol of Kosovo's division, as it separates around 80,000 Kosovo Albanians in the south from around 50 000 Serbs and other nationalities living in the north. It was used as a military checkpoint and provides a de facto boundary and buffer zone between the mainly ethnic Serbian populated North Kosovo and the rest of Kosovo which has an ethnic Albanian majority. Today the bridge is open to pedestrians and there are only Carabinieri patrols from KFOR-MSU and Kosovo Police, but there is no longer any checkpoint.