Location: Novi Sad Map
Construction: 1692- 1776
Petrovaradin Castle is situated in the town of Novi Sad in Vojvodina region of Serbia. Petrovaradin Castle was constructed in 1692- 1776 by duke Charles Eugène de Croÿ on site that was continuously inhabited by humans since Paleolithic period (19,000 to 15,000 BC). Constructed at the time of gun powder and massive cannons, you will not see any tall mountains and impressive walls. Much of the castle uses the earthworks of the hill to defend the military garrison inside. Underground tunnels served its defenders for supply and living quarters.
Prehistory
According to earlier information, the first human
settlement on the Petrovaradin Fortress existed as early as 4500 BC.
After archeological discoveries in the period from 2002 to 2004, the
history of this area was moved to the period of 19,000-15,000 BC. Thanks
to that, we know that man continuously inhabited the area of the
Petrovaradin rock from prehistory to the present day, and even the
Paleolithic, when human habitats were mostly located in caves. Also,
archeological excavations during 2018 have shown that the area of the
Lower Fortress has been inhabited since prehistoric times.
By
researching the remains of settlements from the Late Bronze Age (3000
BC), archaeologists have found ramparts reinforced with stakes and
palisades from that period, which testify that it was still in the time
of the so-called of the Vučedol culture there was a fortified
settlement.
Middle Ages
After the Neolithic, different
cultures changed on the Petrovaradin rock. About a hundred years before
the new era, this area was inhabited by Celts who were replaced a
hundred years later by the Romans, who built the fortress of Kuzum (lat.
Cusum) by fortifying the border on the Danube, which would be destroyed
by the Huns in the fifth century. The name for the fortification that
was located on the site of today's Petrovaradin fortress in Byzantine
times was 'Petrikon'.
In the middle of the 13th century, Catholic
monks from the Cistercian order (lat. Ordo cisterciensis) settled in
almost the same place. With the permission of the Hungarian king Bela
IV, they built a monastery called Belafons (Serbian: Белин извор,
Hungarian: Bélakút). The monastery was fortified after the Tatar
invasion.
The fortress gained greater importance with the
increased danger from the new conqueror - the Ottoman Turks. Hungarian
King Matthias Corvinus often stayed in Petrovaradin. There, in 1463, he
concluded a treaty with the Venetian Republic and at the same time
talked with the nobleman about the defense against the Turks. In 1475,
Corvinus decided to go to war with the Turks. Hungarian King Vladislav
II also visits Petrovaradin, where he encourages efforts to gather more
manpower to repair towers and ramparts with various reliefs. In 1501,
Archbishop Petar Varadi managed to rebuild the fortress with great
efforts.
The appearance of the Petrovaradin fortress in the
Middle Ages
The fortress consisted of two parts - external and
internal. The main gate of the outer wall, which had a small movable
wooden bridge, was built during the 15th century. In front of the outer
wall of the fortress was a deep ditch. The outer wall had all the
hemispheres reinforced with supporting pillars only on the east side.
From the outer gate, it led to the gate of the inner fortress, which was
rectangular in shape. The east wall of the inner fortress was a common
wall with the outer wall. Where they were joined, it was reinforced with
hemispheres. This wall was also reinforced with supporting sloping
pillars and had two hemispheres on the west side as reinforcement. In
the middle of the inner fortress was a church whose apse was facing
east. There were round water tanks on both sides of the church. The
commander's palace was located in the northwestern part of the inner
fortress. On the left bank of the Danube, there was a bridge around
which was a trench filled with water. On the west side of the bridge
wall, there was a tower for an artillery battery with five openings for
cannons. There were gates on the north and south sides of the wall.
In his record of Evliya lebelebi about the Petrovaradin fortress, he
says:
The city of Varadim lies on the banks of the Danube, its
citadel has a hexagonal shape and is located on a high hill that rises
in the sky under the clouds. It is an inaccessible, solid and truly old
city ... The city has seven large towers, all bastions are built
harmoniously ... The fortress has only two hundred boarded houses
without fences and gardens, then Sulejman Khan's mosque, ammunition
depot and grain barns ... On the southeast side there are only hills and
all the vineyards on them.
The rule of the Turks
In 1525, there were only 1,000 cavalry and
500 infantry in the Petrovaradin fortress, and at the end of the year
that number increased to 4,000 soldiers. Before the danger from the
Turks, the command over Petrovaradin was taken over by Pavle Timori, the
former commander of the city of Buda. His demands for reinforcements in
the army and money did not arrive. Instead of help, King Lajos II only
instructed him to move with the main forces to the left bank of the
Danube and leave the command over the fortress to George Alapius.
On July 13, 1526, a Turkish army of 40,000 men led by Grand Vizier
Ibrahim arrived under the walls of Petrovaradin. Sultan Suleiman the
Magnificent encamped near Ilok with the majority of his forces. After a
two-week siege and with the use of a mine attack, the Turks managed to
conquer the fortress, whose almost all defenders were killed.
Petrovaradin remained under Turkish rule, as did a large part of the
Hungarian state, until the Great Vienna War (1683-1699).
After
the invasion of Austria and the unsuccessful siege of Vienna, the
Turkish army began to withdraw and in a series of defeats left most
cities as well as Petrovaradin. The majority of the imperial Austrian
army, which consisted of 27 battalions of infantry and 77 squadrons of
cavalry, arrived in Petrovaradin on July 18, 1688. In the presence of
this army, about 3,000 soldiers were determined to work on strengthening
the fortress. Only the gaps were repaired and a trench with four
redoubts was built on the site of today's Podgrađe in front of which the
trench was filled with water. There were also seven abandoned and burned
houses. A pontoon bridge was also built. After the expulsion of the
Turks from Petrovaradin, the demolition of the old medieval fortress
began in order to begin the construction of a new one according to the
then most modern system of building fortifications. Wanting to regain
the lost fortress, the Turks began several campaigns. They suffered
terrible defeats in the battles near Slankamen in 1691 and the battles
near Senta in 1697, and due to bad weather conditions they left the
siege of Petrovaradin in 1694.
The siege of 1694
Before the
danger from the Turks, a lot of work was done on the Petrovaradin
fortress. Two belts of earthen trenches were built on the south side of
the fortress. This element of the Polish fortification was first
mentioned in 1692 and was duplicated in 1694 by order of Count Carafe.
Grand Vizier Surmeli Ali-pasha arrived from the direction of Belgrade
before the Petrovaradin Fortress on September 9, 1694. The Turkish war
fleet sailed the Danube. The intention was to lay siege to the fortress.
The bombing began on September 12 from land and water. The concentration
of Turkish artillery fire was on the trenches, the water city, two lines
upstream from the bridgehead and the Austrian army in front of the
bridgehead. The deployment of Turkish artillery on the Great War Island
during this siege will later lead to the construction of a small
fortification on that site. In front of the earthen trenches, the Turks
made the first parallel from which they dug their hooves towards the
trenches in order to start a mine attack. They also tried to destroy two
pontoon bridges by throwing logs into the Danube, and they sent swimmers
to cut the ropes that held the pontoon bridges with scissors. Relying on
the fortress, the Austrians tried to break the siege with an outburst on
September 14, but were repulsed. However, they managed to prevent the
pontoon bridges from breaking. Preserving the pontoon bridges, the
Austrians transferred the cavalry and infantry that arrived from Futog
as reinforcements. Attacks on Turkish positions continued until
September 19, but also without success. Meanwhile, the Shayka flotilla
seized Turkish shayks downstream, which were intended for food supply.
Everyday battles, rain, winds, great cold exhausted the Turks. A great
torrent flooded the Turkish trenches and took away the tents. The new
troubles and the appearance of epidemics among the Turkish army, as well
as the approach of the upcoming winter after only 23 days of siege,
began the retreat towards Belgrade.
The beginning of the reconstruction of the fortress and the battle of
1716
The catastrophic defeat of the Turkish army near Senta created
favorable conditions for the Austrians at the peace negotiations in
Karlovac in 1699. The first plan for the construction of the fortress
was made by the engineering colonel Count Matthias Kaisersfeld, and the
next engineering colonel was Count Luigi Ferdinando Marsigli. Colonel
Michel Wamberg, an engineer, was in charge of the work, and after his
death (1703), Colonel Giessenbir was an engineer until 1728. The
fortress was slowly getting its shape. Bastions, ravelins and buttresses
were built on the upper fortress. The foundations of permanent buildings
have been laid. A new bridgehead and a small fortification on the Great
War Island were built. The ramparts of the lower fortress were built in
1711.
The works were interrupted by the outbreak of the new
Austro-Turkish War (1716-1718). In an effort to change the decisions of
the Peace of Karlovac, Turkey undertook a campaign against Austria.
Prince Eugene of Savoy came to Futog on July 9, 1716 with 42,000
infantry (62 battalions) and 23,000 cavalry (187 companies). There were
already 8,000 soldiers in the Petrovaradin fortress. On July 26, 27 and
28, Grand Vizier Damad Ali Pasha crossed the Sava with about 120,000
soldiers (about 40,000 janissaries, 30,000 cavalry and infantry composed
of Albanians and Vlachs). On August 2, there was a conflict between
Petrovaradin and Karlovac. Count Johan Palfi, with 1,300 cavalry and
about 500 infantry, encountered 15,000 Turkish cavalry. After several
hours of battle, Palfi withdrew to Petrovaradin. Surrounding
Petrovaradin, the Turkish army began bombing and digging trenches
towards the fortress. On the other hand, during the night between August
4 and 5, Eugene transferred his troops to the Srem side and in the early
morning attacked the Turkish army, which did not expect an attack. The
left wing of the Austrian army under the command of Count Alexander
Württemberg struck hard at the Turkish right wing. Together with the
left wing, the Austrian center attacked the janissaries, who strongly
opposed and repulsed the attack and pushed it into the center. By
regrouping forces in the center, Eugene managed to stop the attack and
the left wing was given an open path to the place where Damad Ali Pasha
was, who was watching the battle in front of his tent from the highest
hill. With the blow of the right wing and the reserve troops of the
Austrian army, the Turkish line of defense began to fire. The cavalry
that was supposed to help the janissaries turned and left the
battlefield. Panic and disorder arose among the Turkish soldiers, which
spread to the command. The battle was resolved by 11 o'clock. The
Turkish army retreated towards Belgrade in a panic, and the Grand Vizier
was killed. There are several versions of his death. One says that
seeing the hopeless situation, he got on a horse and, together with a
group of the most loyal fighters, flew into the heart of the battle,
where he was hit by a bullet while the other committed suicide. The
lifeless body of the Grand Vizier was transferred to the Belgrade
Fortress, where he was buried. The great offensive tactics of Eugene of
Savoy and the leadership of the troops of his generals solved the battle
with a doubly numerically superior enemy in four hours. Austrian losses
amounted to 2,212 soldiers killed, 2,358 wounded, of which 206 officers.
The losses on the other hand are estimated at around 6,000-7,000
soldiers. The Austrians seized a huge amount of war material. The data
on the seized material are quite different. Turkish sources state that
110 cannons were lost. The value of the entire seizure was estimated at
2,500,000 guilders at the time. This great battle left traces that can
still be seen in the toponyms surrounding the hills: Vezirac, Alibegovac
and Tatarsko brdo. After the battle of Petrovaradin, Eugene conquered
Timisoara and Belgrade the following year, which provided favorable
conditions for making peace with Pozarevac, which gave Austria Banat,
Little Wallachia and the northern part of Serbia.
Continuation of
the construction of the fortress
As the border between Austria and
Turkey was moved from Srem to central Serbia, the Petrovaradin Fortress
remained in the background and less important. Construction work was
slowed down and a standstill occurred in 1728. Until 1753, only what was
most necessary was done on the fortress. None of the started facilities
were completed. The report of the commission of the War Council from
1735 shows that the eastern side of the hornwork was open and the
earthen ramparts of the lower fortress were neglected and half
demolished. A plan has been proposed to address these shortcomings, but
there has been no progress.
The sweeping works on the fortress,
which began in 1753, changed the appearance of the water city, the upper
fortress, the bridgehead, the "hornwork", and the unbuilt walls of the
"kronverka" were demolished. New barracks, gunpowder warehouses, stables
and cannon sheds and stables are being built. These works were done
until 1766.
In 1764, Major Schröder, a military engineer and commander of the
mining corps, began plans to build a minefield system (underground
military gallery) under the 16 km long "hornwork". The construction of
the countermine system lasted until 1776.
Officially, the last
works on the construction of the fortress were done in 1780, but the
works were extended until 1790, when the Petrovaradin fortress became
the most modern armed fortress of the entire Habsburg monarchy. At that
time, its armament consisted of 400 artillery weapons of various
calibers, which was an extremely large number at the time.
Free
shooting company
Petrovaradin gained a privileged status within the
Srem military border, but not in the form of a military community, but
as a Free Shooting Company (Frey Schützen Compagnie). This happened on
October 31, 1748, when the General Engelshofen Regulation came into
force, which was confirmed by the Court War Council on March 10, 1751.
As a Free Shooting Company, Petrovaradin was included in the
Petrovaradin Regiment, but the Court War Council had jurisdiction over
it. Vienna, which realized it through the commander of the Petrovaradin
Fortress.
The company had 220 civilian shooters, and its main
goal was to defend the fortress in case of a siege, as well as to supply
the army in the Fortress and to serve the officers and military officers
in it. By the way, all of them were released from the regular military
border service. At the head of the Company, as a government body, was a
captain appointed by the Slavonian General Command, whose center was in
Osijek.
Full members of the Company, ie archers, underwent
military training, partly with cannons, as artillerymen, and partly with
rifles as archers. The company had its own seal, coat of arms and flag
on which the citizens took the oath of allegiance. The inhabitants of
the Company were divided into two categories: free shooters (or
citizens) and beggars. In 1766, there were 370 civilian (shooting) and
70 Bečar families in the Company.
The inhabitants of Petrovaradin
at that time were Austrian Germans and Germans from the Reich, Czechs,
Shocks, and to a lesser extent Armenians, Cincari and Jews, and later
Serbs from the Bukovac Community joined Petrovaradin in 1777.
In
1787, the Free Shooter Company ceased to exist, and Petrovaradin was de
facto and formally granted the status of a community. When the civil
militia (Landver) was created in 1808, the Petrovaradin community,
including Bukovac, was supposed to contain two companies or companies,
as a reserve for the crew in the fortress during the great war danger.
Fortress in the 19th century
Wanting to help the First Serbian
Uprising, the citizens of Novi Sad paid bribe-paying Austrian officers
with gold coins, and managed to smuggle two cannons from the
Petrovaradin Fortress.
After the collapse of the First Serbian
Uprising, its leader, leader Djordje Petrovic, along with some other
leaders of the uprising, was detained in the Petrovaradin Fortress.
As during the 18th century, so in the 19th century, that is. from
its founding in 1750 to 1880, units of the Petrovaradin Regiment took
part in 30 wars and over 140 battles fought by Austria throughout
Europe.
After the great floods in 1827 and 1832, a small
fortification (Inzelshanac) sank in the Danube, which was built on the
Great War Island.
The revolutionary events that engulfed Austria
in 1848 did not bypass Petrovaradin or Novi Sad. The garrison of the
Petrovaradin Fortress approached the leader of the revolution, Lajos
Kossuth. Counter-revolutionary units under the command of Ban Josip
Jelačić, entering Novi Sad on June 12, 1849, provoked a reaction from
the garrison, which opened artillery fire on the city and almost
completely destroyed it.
The first World War
After the
Sarajevo assassination, the government's attitude towards the Slavic
population deteriorated greatly. In Petrovaradin, the work of the
Croatian Singing Society "Neven", the Croatian Reading Room and the
Croatian Falcon was banned. After the penetration of the Serbian army in
Srem in 1914, a large number of Serbs from Srem were arrested. Most of
them were interned in Petrovaradin and placed in already prepared camps.
There were over 2,000 people in the camp. Some have been charged with
high treason and brought before a military court. They were sentenced to
death and shot at the Petrovaradin Fortress on October 14, 1914. Three
days later, the court sentenced another 37 people to death, who were
immediately executed.
Austro-Hungarian non-commissioned officer
Josip Broz was detained in Petrovaradin. Petrovaradin became one of the
very important traffic hubs where Austro-Hungarian forces crossed the
Danube. As the pontoon bridge was insufficient for the transfer of the
army, a temporary bridge was built on wooden pillars, the so-called
Pojorek's bridge. The bridge had electric lighting and was guarded by a
hundred soldiers.
During the war, a large number of prisoners from the Balkan and
Italian fronts were housed in Petrovaradin. They were used as free labor
to build an embankment on the right bank of the Danube. A large number
of wounded were in the Petrovaradin Military Hospital. For a while, the
War Command against Serbia was located in Petrovaradin.
After the
breakthrough of the Thessaloniki front and the liberation of Serbia, the
Serbian army continued to advance to the north and on November 9, 1918,
entered Petrovaradin together with French colonial troops from Senegal
under the command of Major Vojislav Bugarski.
Petrovaradin
Fortress between the two world wars
In the first years after the
First World War, the Petrovaradin Fortress remained without
fortifications on the left bank of the Danube. Back in 1919, the then
mayor of Novi Sad, Jovan Živojnović, announced that he would ask the new
military authorities to hand over Mostobran to the city. The newspapers
then wrote that "a characteristic remnant of the black-and-yellow rule
in this area will disappear, as well as a hotbed of contagious miasms,
which poisoned the air of the promenade and contributed to malaria,
which Novi Sad became famous for." the surrounding area is under the
jurisdiction of the city of Novi Sad and its demolition is allowed.
Between 1922 and 1924, during the construction of the first permanent
road-pedestrian bridge over the Danube between Petrovaradin and Novi
Sad, almost the entire bridgehead was demolished. At the same time,
during the construction of the access road on the right bank of the
Danube, the Water Gate was demolished, as well as a part of the casemate
rooms of the western part of the Water City.
Immediately before
the Second World War, in 1939, works were carried out on the widening of
the road to Kamenica and Petrovaradin. Along the right bank of the
Danube, a part of the Water Retrenchment and the Inner Stone Gate were
demolished, while parts of the outer fortifications were demolished in
front of the Belgrade Gate. In addition to rare photographs of these
demolitions, Rudolf R. Schmidt also left a written testimony. Even then,
he noticed that the Fortress was "collapsing more and more" in recent
years, and he considered the construction of the mentioned road
insufficiently justified, and it seemed to him that it was a better
solution if the road went around the Fortress, ie through Tranžament.
costs of demolition of certain parts of the Fortress. Schmidt also
testified about countless minor damages on the walls "due to the
arbitrary actions of individuals". In his opinion, the Petrovaradin
Fortress, in addition to its historical and scientific significance,
could be the most striking landmark of Novi Sad, which can bring it "a
lot of tourist importance, and should be protected from any damage", and
Belgrade Fortress and Kalemegdan could serve as an example of can do so
by turning one former military facility into a model park. Among other
things, Schmidt informs about the fate that could have befallen the
Petrovaradin Fortress. Namely, according to him, the former
fortifications of the Habsburg monarchy, which lost their military
significance after the First World War, were destroyed (Osijek, Brod,
Karlovac, Pancevo). Allegedly, thanks to "Colonel General Dragoš
Đelošević", Petrovaradin escaped such a fate.
World War II and
Petrovaradin Fortress
Before the Second World War, a belt of concrete
bunkers was built at the Petrovaradin Fortress in Petrovaradin and its
immediate surroundings to accommodate machine guns and the crew that
serves it. With the collapse and division of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia
after the April War of 1941, Petrovaradin became part of the newly
formed Independent State of Croatia. The Pilot School, the air defense
and later the command of the SS troops were located on the fortress. A
large number of unsuccessful operations were launched from the
Petrovaradin Fortress in order to destroy the partisan forces on Fruška
Gora. By September 1944, more than half of the Petrovaradin garrison had
joined the People's Liberation Army. The Petrovaradin Fortress was
liberated on October 23, 1944, one hour after midnight.
Petrovaradin Fortress after the Second World War
The first ideas
about the conversion of the Petrovaradin Fortress were given by the
architect Branko Maksimović in 1937. According to his Project for the
conceptual regulation plan of the city of Novi Sad, the impossibility of
building a representative center on the territory of the city was
noticed. Maksimović placed this Representative Center in the area of
the "lower trenches" of the Petrovaradin Fortress, ie the Water City,
where future monumental buildings would be built. According to
Maksimović, the demolition of this part of the Petrovaradin Fortress
would create conditions for the construction of an extremely interesting
and harmonious urban ensemble in the immediate vicinity of the center of
Novi Sad, which would be framed by "the old fortress, Danube and future
park ..."
After the Second World War, in 1948, the Fortress was placed under
state protection. On the Republic Day, November 29, 1951, the largest
part of the Fortress, which was handed over to the administration of the
People's Committee of the Municipality of Novi Sad, was opened for the
first time to the public. The following year, 1952, the City
Administration for the Petrovaradin Fortress was founded, and the
architect Andrija Sečujski was appointed its head. After only one decade
of work, this Administration was integrated into the Municipal
Organization "Gradsko zelenilo" in 1962, which lasted until 1981, when
the Petrovaradin Fortress was returned to the city's jurisdiction and
thoroughly registered as the property of the Novi Sad City Assembly and
a cultural asset. interest.
RO "Urbanism" made in 1988 a detailed
urban plan of the Petrovaradin Fortress. Extensive documentation on the
condition of the Petrovaradin Fortress has been prepared. The general
conclusion of the situation in the Fortress was reduced to three words:
"The situation is bad." The situation at that time, in which each user
of the Fortress took care only of his own needs, and no one coordinated
or cared for the entire complex, was considered disastrous for the
Fortress. By the decision of the Municipal Assembly of Novi Sad, at the
end of 1991, the Public Company "Petrovaradin Fortress" was established,
to which the Fortress was entrusted for management and use. At the same
time, the City Assembly adopts the Detailed Urban Plan of the
Petrovaradin Fortress, which directed the activities of this company.
The public company was abolished after a year and a half of existence.
By declaring it a cultural and historical monument, transferring the
Fortress under civil administration and obtaining the status of a
cultural and historical monument of great importance, it did not prevent
the occurrence of constant physical devastation of its entire complex.
With all administrations, committees and commissions of the National
Board of the Municipality of Novi Sad, the Municipality of Petrovaradin,
the Municipal Assembly and the Executive Board of the Assembly of the
City of Novi Sad, with all urban and other documentation, all
protection, utilities and public companies, for Slobodan Jovanovic
millennium was still a decrepit patient of one hundred and one diseases
in need of thorough rehabilitation, care and revitalization. He also
noticed that there is no lack of plans and programs, ideas and visions,
and that there was always a lack of practical exams - realization. Also,
back in 1996, Jovanovic warned that the Petrovaradin Fortress especially
needed programs of intensive and urgent rehabilitation, a program of
conservation and restoration measures and a far-reaching and parallel
program of research (not only archeological) and presentation of its
history, reality and prospecting.