Location: Srebrenik, Tuzla Canton Map
Constructed: 1333
Srebrenik Fortress is a medieval fortress on the territory of today's municipality of Srebrenik, Bosnia and Herzegovina. In December 2004, the Srebrenik fortress was declared a national monument of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
It is located on the northeastern slopes of the Majevica mountain, in the village of Gornji Srebrenik, about 5 km from Srebrenik. It was built on a high, steep and almost inaccessible rock above the valley of the river Tinja. A deep moat was made under the most accessible part of the fortress, so access is only possible via the bridge. It is 5 km away from the modern road Tuzla-Županja, or Tuzla-Lončari-Brčko.
The fortress was built on a rock that rises from the surrounding
terrain at a height of about 50 to 70 m. The height difference between
the lowest point where tower III is located and the highest point on the
palace is about 13 m. Therefore, the entire fortress was compressed on
an area of about 60 x 30 meters. To the southeast of the capital tower,
in front of the moat, about 17 m from the entrance to the fortress,
there is the ruin of a detached square tower (side length 7 m).
The ramparts of the fortress and the outer parts of the walls of all the
towers and enclosures, which together with the ramparts formed the
defensive envelope of the fortress, are about 1.5 m thick, while all
other walls inside the ramparts are thinner. The entire fortress was
built in one go. It contains: four towers, a corral, a cistern and a
residential building with a basement.
Since Srebrenik was
thoroughly preserved in the period from 1975 to 1978, and in 2003 a new
solid bridge was built to access the fortress, today there is no major
damage.
There are no known historical sources that would clearly indicate the
year of construction of this fortress or its builder. The oldest source
in which Srebrenik is explicitly mentioned is the charter of Ban Stjepan
II Kotromanić from 1333.
It was located on important military
roads at the time, which gave the fortress strategic importance. Already
in 1363, King Ludovic I sent an army towards Bosnia, headed by his
palatine Nikola Count, which suffered heavy losses at Srebrenik.
Srebrenik fell under Hungarian rule in 1393, during the campaign of the
Hungarian king Sigismund. Since then, Hungarian military campaigns in
Bosnia have become more frequent. The Hungarians occupied Srebrenik
three more times, in 1405, 1408 and 1410. The fortress was then given as
a gift to Serbian despot Stefan Lazarević, although it still served as a
Hungarian garrison. King Stjepan Tomaš managed to bring the fortress
back under Bosnian control for a short time in 1433, but already in 1452
it was conquered by Đurađ Branković, the nephew of Stefan Lazarević, who
gave it to the Hungarian authorities.
In 1462, the Ottomans
conquered Srebrenik, and the following year they overthrew the Bosnian
kingdom. Due to logistical failures and a sudden epidemic, the Ottomans
were forced to leave Srebrenik, which was taken advantage of by Matthias
Corvin, who conquered Srebrenik and then handed it over to the titular
king of Bosnia, Nikola of Ilok, in 1464. In the same year, the
Srebrenica Banovina was founded.
The Ottomans conquered the
Srebrenica Banovina between 1510 and 1519 and established their garrison
in Srebrenik.
With the expansion of the borders of the Ottoman
Empire to the north and northeast, the fortress lost its importance,
therefore it remained either almost or completely abandoned. As a
result, unrepaired damage remains.
After the Peace of Karlovac,
the fortress once again becomes strategically important. Austrian spies
report only that Srebrenik is an old fortress. Repairs were made on
several occasions, the first as early as 1756, but their scope and
result is unknown.
With the departure of the last soldier, the
fortress was completely abandoned in 1835. Only the Ottoman mosque,
built in the 16th century, remained maintained in the following decades.