Walking through the ravaged City: An Eyewitness Testimony to Demolition of the Belgrade Fortress in 1690

Katić, Tatjana (2018) Walking through the ravaged City: An Eyewitness Testimony to Demolition of the Belgrade Fortress in 1690. In: Belgrade 1521-1867. Institute of History Belgrade; Yunus Emre Enstitüsü - Turkish Cultural Centre Belgrade, Belgrade, pp. 79-99. ISBN 978-86-7743-132-7

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Abstract

Abdullah bin Ibrahim nicknamed Uskudari was a participant in the military campaign of grand vizier Mustafa Pasha Koprulu against Serbia in 1690. In his diary, he described one of the largest destructions in the long history of the Belgrade fortress. In October 1690 during the Ottoman bombardment of Belgrade, which was then in hands of the Habsburg Monarchy, one grenade struck a large powder storeroom and caused an explosion that destroyed the medieval castle of despot Stefan Lazarević. The castle, built in the early 15th century, was situated in the present-day area between the Victor monument and the Ottoman fountain at Defterdar’s Gate, where today only a miniature scale model reveals its former appearance. Uskudari’s dramatic first-hand description of the explosion and of the slaughter of defenders in the Danube port tells not only about the human and material costs but also provides information on the location of some of the city’s buildings and neighbourhoods

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