Mostar (Cyrillic: Мостар, Serbo-Croatian pronunciation: [mǒstaːr]) is a city and municipality in southern Bosnia and Herzegovina. Inhabited by 113,169 people, it is the most important city in the Herzegovina region, its cultural capital, and the center of the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton of the Federation. Mostar is situated on the Neretva River and is the fifth-largest city in the country. Mostar was named after the bridge keepers (mostari) who in the medieval times guarded the Stari Most (Old Bridge) over the Neretva.