Beautiful Aisa was the daughter of the rich and powerful Selim-beg. According to legend Aisa, a beautiful Turkish woman fell in love with Stojan, a poor Serbian shepherd and she wanted to go to the mountains with him. Stojan did not remain indifferent either. They began to meet secretly near Vranjska river. Stories of forbidden love started in the bazaar. The word about the love of a young Turkish woman and a Serbian young man reached the ears of a powerful Turk Selim-beg. One day, Selim-beg followed his daughter… He had a rifle in his hand. He found her with Stojan by the river and aimed his rifle at the young man, but the bullet hit his daughter, who covered the young man with her body in her attempt to protect him. The second bullet hit its target. The last wish of the dying Aisha was to have a bridge built on that place, from the money planned for her marriage.
The father respected the request of his only daughter. In 1844, he built a bridge called the White Bridge. The bridge was built in 1844, it connected the left and right bank of the Vranjska River. It’s called white because it is built in white marble, and there is a plate of the so-called tarih on it which is written in Turkish and in Arabic–Cursed be the one who separates the lovers.
Below this text is the text in Arabic:
“O Guardian, the owner of this goodness and beauty, Hanuma Aisha, is building this bridge so that God will forgive her all her sins and the sins of her parents.”
This is how Vranje remembered the event.
Today, more and more tourists from all over the world come to visit the White Bridge: lovers catch water under the bridge with which they spray their clothes to protect their love from evil forces. On Valentine’s Day, a large number of young, in love and married couples cross the bridge twice: they say that the White Bridge has a strange effect, inexplicable to this day.
