Siege of Kőszeg
| date | August 5. bis thirtieth August 1532 |
|---|---|
| place | Kőszeg , Hungary |
| output | "Receipt of certificates" of the castle, withdrawal of the Ottomans |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
| Troop strength | |
| 700–800 several thousand civilians |
up to 300,000 (including entourage) |
| losses | |
|
unknown |
unknown |
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The siege of Kőszeg ( German : Güns ) by the army of Sultan Suleyman I lasted from August 5th to August 30th, 1532 . It ended with the honorable handover of the fortress by its commander Nikola Jurišić ( Hungarian : Miklós Jurisics ). Since the relatively small fortress had been able to bind the huge Turkish army for so long, it seemed advisable to Sultan Suleyman to forego further military ventures and to break off his campaign. The subsequent march back of the Turkish army led over the area of the Duchy of Styria, which thereby experienced the worst devastation in living memory.
Starting position
After the Turks had already besieged the city of Vienna unsuccessfully in 1529 , three years later, after peace negotiations had failed, they moved again towards Vienna. On April 25, 1532, the Turkish army under Sultan Suleyman I (the Magnificent) left Constantinople . Since he wanted to defeat Emperor Charles V in open battle, he refrained from taking heavy artillery with him - a circumstance that later benefited the besieged in Kőszeg. According to chroniclers, around 300,000 men, including a huge entourage of more than 100,000, moved north through the southwestern border counties of Hungary under the leadership of Grand Vizier Ibrahim and destroyed place by place on their way.
The siege
From August 5th, the huge army besieged the Kőszeg Castle , which had been poorly prepared for a siege with only a few hundred poorly equipped soldiers and peasants. Women, old people and children who sought refuge from the Turkish threat were also in the castle. For 25 days the defenders fought against a total of 18 assaults by the Ottomans. The defense of the castle was directed by city and castle captain Nikola Jurišić . When the defenders were already pretty decimated, Jurišić decided to use the women for defense as well.
During the siege, Turkish troops marched through the surrounding area. As members of the so-called feudal riding, in contrast to most members of the Turkish main army, they did not receive a fixed salary and were therefore primarily out for looting. These “runners and burners” destroyed farms, stole cattle, in some places killed the residents or abducted them, mostly young people, into slavery.
By the end of August, both parties were already severely exhausted. It is said to have come to a personal meeting between Jurišić and the Turkish Grand Vizier Ibrahim, at which Jurišić is said to have agreed to hoist a Turkish flag on the castle walls as a symbol of " taking possession ".
retreat
After 25 days of unsuccessful siege warfare and an uprising by the Janissaries , the Sultan had the siege ended. Since during the siege of Kőszeg in the area around Vienna a large army had already formed to defend against the Turks, the Turkish military leader decided not to continue the campaign. Before the army finally withdrew, however, it marched into the border areas of the duchies of Austria and Styria , leaving behind a devastating trail of devastation. Numerous localities were completely razed to the ground on this “withdrawal”.
Result
Another attempt by the Turks to attack the imperial city of Vienna was repulsed and the defenders of Kőszeg Castle had made a decisive contribution to this. According to tradition, the last Turkish contingents should have left the city limits at 11 a.m. In memory of the heroes of 1532, the church bells in the small Hungarian town of Kőszeg have been ringing at 11 a.m. since 1777.
On the occasion of the 400th anniversary of the successful defense, the Heroes 'Gate (also called Heroes' Tower) was built in Kőszeg in 1932. The southern lower gate of the fortress used to stand in its place.
literature
- Bertrand Michael Buchmann: Austria and the Ottoman Empire. A bilateral story. WUV, Vienna 1999, ISBN 3-85114-479-1 , p. 93 f.
- August Ernst: History of Burgenland. 2nd Edition. R. Oldenbourg et al. a., Munich a. a. 1991, ISBN 3-486-54072-6 .
Web links
- History of the city on the website of the city of Kőszeg
Individual evidence
- ↑ August Ernst: History of Burgenland. History of the Austrian federal states. Verlag für Geschichte und Politik, Vienna 1991, ISBN 3-7028-0311-4 , p. 122.
Coordinates: 47 ° 23 ′ 17 ″ N , 16 ° 32 ′ 30 ″ E