Fire in Skopje
The Skopje fire was a deliberate fire that almost completely destroyed the city of Skopje , then Üsküb, in 1689.
The fire was started on October 25, 1689 by General Enea Silvio Piccolomini , the commander of the Habsburgs , who penetrated deep into the Ottoman Empire during the Great Turkish War . The troops commanded by General Piccolomini victoriously penetrated the town, which had largely been deserted by the population, on October 25, 1689 and were able to procure food there, but discovered that the town was allegedly ravaged by the plague or cholera .
Üsküb was a most important Ottoman city in the Balkans. The population was 40,000 to 60,000. Piccolomini compared them to Prague and admired the well-tended gardens and magnificent mosques. Convinced that he could not hold and defend Üsküb, Piccolomini decided to retreat north. He ordered the city to be burned so that it could not be retaken in the event of a counter-offensive by the Ottoman army.
According to one version, the arson was a revenge by the Austrians for the siege of Vienna in 1683 .
The city burned down almost completely in three days, October 25-27, 1689, and only a few stone buildings remained.
Together with the earthquakes of 518, 1555 and 1963, the fire was the most significant catastrophe in the history of Skopje. Almost 50,000 residents of the city moved into Vojvodina along the military border . The Serbian national propaganda of the 19th century referred to this process as the expulsion of the Serbs.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Marlene Kurz: The sicill from Skopje. Critical edition and commentary on the only completely preserved Kadiamtsregisterband ("sicill") from Üsküb (Skopje). Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2003, ISBN 3-447-04722-4 , p. 51.
- ↑ Денот што го турна Скопје во двовековен мрак
- ↑ НАПУШТАЊЕ СРБИЈЕ И БЕОГРАДА, ДОГАЂАЈИ НЕПОСРЕДНО ПОСЛЕ