The Baroque City at the South of the Danube

When invading armies camped on the banks and fields under Petrovaradin Fortress, defenders fired upon them with rifles and shelled them with cannons through hidden gun holes.

By Vanja Savić , Photo by Boris Radivojkov

The Petrovaradin Fortress was an almost unconquerable fortification and every army that succeeded in taking it could feel assured that it gained a superior stronghold. There, in a suburb of the Balkans where the Western and Eastern worlds had been in collision for centuries, Petrovaradin was an obstacle for the advancement of numerous invaders. Today, while strolling along its paths above the Danube, traces of its history and past wars are still visible, but only as Baroque features and a tourist attraction.

Civilizations have succeeded one another at the Danube boundary for seventy thousand years. Today the river divides the regions known as Bačka and Srem. The present appearance of Petrovaradin Fortress dates to the period from 1692 to 1780.

- These were the years of the great Turkish-Austrian wars and the Serbian migration northward. The construction of Petrovaradin began during the reign of the Emperor Leopold I and ended under Joseph II. When construction of this fortification was completed, further advancement by the Ottomans was simply impossible, - says Siniša Jokić, a historian and custodian at this cultural-historical monument.

In addition to its admirable strategic position, a crucial element in the defence of this fortification was subterranean corridors that led to gun holes. These provided daily light and served as observation posts from where the movements of besiegers could be watched.

- The subterranean corridors extended on four levels under the fortification and the Hornwerk (the protruding part of the southern fortress) and further led to a fifth and the sixth semi-level. In total, the corridors stretch almost twenty kilometres in length and lead to some twelve thousand gun holes. The principal idea of the Austrian Empire's military architects was to protect and hide troops in the corridors, because wars were then led mostly during the day, - says Jokić, while guiding us through the underground military galleries.

History   - 4.500 b.c.e. - the first human settlements. - 300 b.c.e. - the Celtic settlements. - 30 c.e. - the Romans built Casum, their fortification. - 375 c.e. - the arrival of the Huns and their conquest of Sirmium in 441. - From Attila's death in 454, Goths, Gepids, Avars and Bulgars lived here. - At the end of the 9th century the Hungarians conquered Pannonia. - 1181 - Srem was integrated into the Hungarian Kingdom. - 1235 - king Bela IV settled the Cistercians, a monastic order from France, and they built Belae fons (abbey Belakut). - 1247 - with the support of pope Innocent IV, a fortified castle was built to suppress the Tatar invasion. - 27th July 1526 - Petrovaradin fell under Turkish rule. - 1691 - the Austrians recaptured it. - October 1692 - a cornerstone was laid to build the Petrovaradin fortress. - 1716 - under Eugene of Savoy the Austrians, Serbs and other Christian peoples defended Petrovaradin from the Turks. - 1748 - the fortress was granted the status of community and in 1751 got its coat of arms and seal. - 1788-1791 during the last Austrian-Turkish war the fortress again proved to be one of Europe’s defence positions. - November 1918 - Petrovaradin was conquered by the army of the principality of Serbia.

Financial support for the construction of the Petrovaradin Fortress was provided by the papal nuncio in 1692. The remaining medieval walls were completely torn down in order to build a new fortification based on a system designed by Sébastien Vauban, a French military engineer who had also supervised construction of the fortresses at Werden, Strasbourg and Metz.

Petrovaradin was built according to the designs and under the supervision of Austrian military architects Kayserweld, Vanberg, Marsigli and others. By 1728 all five bastions of the Upper Fortress had been built: the Leopold Bastion, today's belvedere looking southward to Belgrade; the Ludwig Bastion with the famed Petrovaradin clock that shows hours with its big hand and minutes with its small one; the Joseph I Bastion, the Innocent Bastion and Maria Theresa's Bastion above which a large number of artists keep their studios.

- The "Fine Art Circle" assembles about one hundred painters, graphic artists, sculptors, photographers, composers… The studios are open so that tourists can enjoy watching the artists at work, but they can also commission a work according to their wish. The Long Barracks houses the Fine Art Circle's Gallery. Leopold's Bastion houses gallery "Atelier 61", which is known for its tapestries, and next to it is the "Varadin" Hotel, the Meteorological Station and the Historical Archive of Novi Sad, - explains the custodian Jokić.

Every bastion is actually a fortress and all are interconnected. The Court Gate and a tunnel connect the Leopold and Innocent Bastions and through it one can arrive by car to the night club "Arondo" or to the 70-meter deep and vaulted Great War Well. Going on foot along the rampart one reaches the Joseph I Bastion and through the Gate of Charles VI, under a row of centuries-old linden trees one reaches the St. George Monastery, from where one enters the compound of the Lower Fortress - Wasserstadt.

Under the Upper Town lies the Lower or Water Town with about sixty objects that were constructed while the fortress was being built to accommodate workers and those who kept the fortress functioning, as well as the officers and troops of the Slavonian supreme command of the Hapsburg Monarchy.

The residential officers' pavilion was located under the town which was imbued with an atmosphere that reflected the aristocracy and discipline of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. To the left and right from the Belgrade Gate, which you pass when taking the old road from Belgrade to Novi Sad, there were casemates of the central prison where many military and political prisoners of the 18^th and the 19^th centuries were confined. Petrovaradin was one of the most important military strongholds in the Habsburg Monarchy and the commander of the fortress was regarded as having the most elite posts and was usually a close friend of the Viennese court.

In the first half of the 20^th century, the Petrovaradin Fortress hosted the School of Aviation, which is where students first learned about aviation in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Many of them took part in defending local skies at the beginning of World War Two, on April 6, as locals fought against the more advanced and more numerous airplanes of Hitler's Germany. The Petrovaradin Baroque town has been a cultural-historical monument since 1951. In our century, this historical site on the slopes of Fruška Gora has been at the centre of various cultural institutions, like the Novi Sad City Museum and the Art Academy. In summer, it is the site of one of the most popular rock festival in Europe, Exit. Open all year long, the site numbers among the most interesting tourist destinations in Vojvodina and Serbia.