Fortresses in Serbia

Remains of some 30 of the formerly 200 or so medieval fortresses and fortified cities can be found in Serbia.

Prepared by Jovo Simišić
Photo by PUBLICA Agency

One can find several hundred sites with the remains of old forts throughout present-day and former Serbian lands, but few are in good enough condition to allow archeologists to determine what they once looked like. Those that retained their function into later periods –under Turkish occupation for instance – are better preserved. Most of these underwent enlargements and modifications as military technology advanced, and they subsequently lost their original medieval appearance. Some of them served as precursors to modern-day cities.

Many of them await serious reconstruction and restoration, according to plans developed by experts from the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments of Serbia. Still, many others have fallen into disrepair, are covered with debris and overgrown with thicket, and are gradually losing the battle with time.

What all these old constructions have in common is their status as cultural monuments of high or exceptional importance, and some even figure high on the list of world cultural heritage sites.

Fortresses, castles and fortified cities were of great importance to medieval Serbian lands as key strongholds of defence. Strong fortifications guaranteed the country's survival, whereas their capture meant that territory would be seized and lands conquered. As a rule, they were built at strategic or virtually inaccessible positions on hilltops. Spiked bulwarks with lanes on top surrounded fortifications to protect defenders. A large moat would usually be dug on the outside perimeter, in the lowlands, and was usually filled with water. At certain points the bulwark would be strengthened with tall towers.

Fortresses were solely military strongholds, whereas castles were smaller fortified places accommodating a ruler's or nobleman's court. The most spacious were cities with several particularly defended sections. Apart from a castle, they also included a fortified section with a civilian settlement. Apart from coastal cities, these included Skoplje and Novo Brdo, as well as the capital cities of Belgrade and Smederevo.

Old forts have long since lost their former functions. Garrisons have left their ramparts, surrendering them to decay and negligence. Dilapidated, mostly strewn with rubble and overgrown with underbrush, forts continue to resist time, testifying to by-gone ages. In recent years, however, the attitude toward these culturally valuable remains is changing and they are increasingly treated as part of cultural heritage.

In more recent years, researchers, archaeologists, architects and restorers have shown a heightened interest in preserving these ancient ruins from further destruction and in restoring and adjusting them for use by modern people. Be that as it may, these experts are of one mind that despite the urgency and necessity to protect such monuments, these undertakings outstrip the resources of local communities.

Fortifications and castles in European cities are the most popular destinations of visiting tourists, earning their respective local communities hefty revenues. Apart from Belgrade Fortress, such sites cannot be found elsewhere in Serbia. In addition to an organised effort to care for these old fortified cities, thereby expanding the country's tourist offer and gaining significant income from cultural tourism, a new programme is being developed that is of interest to the country as a whole.

To these ends, an exhibition of photographs called Fortresses and Remains of Fortified Cities of Serbia was organised in Belgrade in September and October. The exhibition was part of a larger-scale project mounted by Beogradska Tvrdjava, in cooperation with the Standing Conference of Cities and Municipalities, aimed at preventing forts from falling into oblivion and presenting them to the public as an integral part of the country's cultural and historical legacy and the potential of the tourist industry.

BELGRADE FORTRESS

The fort on the hill overlooking the confluence of the Sava and Danube Rivers is a multi-layered and very intricate complex dating from the period between the 2^nd and 18^th centuries. The area where the fortress stands today was taken up in the 2^nd century by a Roman castrum – a permanent military camp of the IV Flavia Legion. Following destruction at the hands of the Goths and Huns in the years 378 and 441, the fort was renewed in the early decades of the 6^th century. Less than a century later, the Avars and the Slavs destroyed it again.

The first Slav settlement emerged on the ruins of the ancient fort known to contemporaries by the late 9^th century as Beograd (White City - Belgrade). Only later – in the mid-12^th century – under Byzantine rule, was the first new, medieval fort built in the corner of what is today known as the Upper City.

During the rule of King Stefan Dušan, in the fourth decade of the 14^th century, a new fortified suburbium – connected to the fort on the hill – was built on the Sava River bank. The principal medieval fortifications were built in the early 15^th century when Belgrade became Serbia's capital city.

Following Ottoman capture in 1521 through the end of the 17^th century, Belgrade Fortress did not undergo any significant reconstruction work. A new era began with the Austro-Turkish War of 1688. As the key fort at the centre of this conflict that lasted throughout the 18^th century, Belgrade Fortress was reconstructed on three occasions. During Austrian rule, from 1717–1739, new bastions for artillery were built on the fortifications, but these were removed following military defeat and Austria's loss of Belgrade under a peace treaty. The reconstruction work of the torn fortifications carried out under the Turks constituted an attempt to restore this important stronghold for its defense function. It was during this period, through the end of the 18^th century, that Belgrade Fortress assumed its definite appearance. The last Turkish garrison left Belgrade Fortress in April of 1867.

During the course of the 19^th and 20^th centuries, Belgrade Fortress gradually lost its former military significance. It sustained overwhelming damage in World War I and World War II.

BAČ

A medieval fort, the Castle of Bač is located in the town of the same name in Bačka, a region in northwestern Serbia. It is the most important and best preserved medieval fort in the Vojvodina province. It was built on a small hill above the town on an island between the Mostonga River (which has dried up since) and one of its tributaries.

Historical records mention Bač in the early 14^th century as a Hungarian royal city. The fort itself, that is the castle, is dated to the 1338–1342 period, during the rule of Hungarian King Robert of Anjou. However, it assumed its definite appearance in the 15^th century. Archbishop Petrus de Varda enlarged and beautified it, and deepened the Mostonga River to provide ships sailing on the Danube access to Bač. Slanting, broad openings for cannons were added during reconstruction of Bač's two towers – on the southern and southeastern sides – in late 15^th century. The Turks captured it in 1529, after the Battle of Mohacs, and during the time of the Rakoczy rebellion in 1703-1710, it was torched, destroyed and deserted.

The fort has a trapezoid base and was built entirely in brick. On the southeastern section of the castle yard is a free-standing, tall, well-preserved tower, one of the finest examples of late medieval donjons in this part of Europe.

NIŠ FORTRESS

This historic landmark is located in the heart of the city, on the right bank of the Nišava River.

The medieval fortress was built on the foundations of a fort dating back to earlier, classical and Byzantine periods. A strong Byzantine garrison was stationed there in the late 11^th century.

Grand Župan Stefan Nemanja captured it in 1183, and in 1189 he met here, in Niš, with German Emperor Friedrich I Barbarossa. From 1203 onward it was under Bulgarian rule before it was returned to Serbia during the rule of Emperor Dušan. The Turks took it in 1427.

In the 1720s and 1730s, the Turks built completely new artillery-adapted bastions, in place of the old fort, in accordance with Vauban's system to defend the new border towards the Hapsburg monarchy. Austria temporarily seized the city of Niš in 1737, but the fortress continued to serve as a major Turkish stronghold until 1877, when it was finally liberated.

PETROVARADIN FORTRESS

Petrovaradin Fortress is located in Novi Sad, on a small hill overlooking the Danube River.

In the first half of the 13^th century, Hungarian King Bela IV (1235–1270) allowed a cross-based Cistercian monastery, called Belakut, to be built on this site. After Tartars sacked the monastery, it was strengthened with square-forming ramparts. The monastery fortifications were especially reinforced in the late 15^th century as part of defense preparations against the Turks.

On their way to Mohacs, the Turks captured Petrovaradin in 1526. After defeat of the Turks at the gates of Vienna, the Austrian army liberated Petrovaradin and launched construction of new fortifications.

The building of new fortifications with artillery bastions in accordance with Marshal Vauban's system were started around 1690. This was also when the old medieval fortress was replaced by what is today known as the Upper City. A large number of facilities from that period have been preserved within the Upper City section to this day. Construction work – with breaks included – lasted for nearly a century, and was especially intensified after 1739, when Turks again seized Belgrade. New fortifications included military underground galleries and communication tunnels that stretched 16 kilometres in length. These may be singled out as one of the fortress's most extraordinary features. After 1739, the Lower City, at the foot of the citadel's eastern slope, was enlarged and pentagon-shaped ramparts were added.

The Petrovaradin fortification is thought to be among the most superior achievements of European military architecture of the latter half of the 18^th century.

SMEDEREVO FORTRESS

Smederevo Fortress lies on a flat stretch of land where the Jezava River flows into the Danube. It was built to serve as the fortified court of Despot Djuradj Branković and the country's capital after Belgrade was handed to Hungary following the untimely death Despot Stefan in 1427. The Fortress took great effort to build and is the last major achievement of Serbian military architecture.

With a triangular base, the fortress consists of the Big Town and Small Town. The first stage of building the Small Town was completed from 1428 to 1430. It is surrounded on two sides by the Danube and Jezava Rivers, while its remaining side had a water-filled moat. Most of the construction work of the Big Town was completed by 1439, and it was fortified between 1444 and 1453.

The Turks captured the city in 1439, but it was returned to Despot Djuradj, as provisioned by the Peace of Szeged in 1444. It then definitely fell into Turkish hand in 1459, thereby also marking the fall of the Serbian medieval state.

In the course of 1480, the Turks reinforced the entire city by adding three short and octagonal cannon towers in its corners. These were connected by a low external rampart. The Big Town and the Small Town both had water-filled moats in front of their external ramparts.

In 1867, the Turkish army left Smederevo, which was one of six cities that the Turks surrendered to Prince Mihailo.