Tvrđa
Tvrđa is a baroque fortress in Osijek and at the same time the old town of Osijek.
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history
Osijek is a small town in the eastern part of Croatia , which is nowadays divided into the upper town, the lower town and the fortress ("Tvr “a"). Archaeological finds date the emergence of the fortress city to the eighth century AD.
The fortress in the Middle Ages
It was not until the Middle Ages that the fortress developed a little further west from the Roman Mursa (the lower town). During this time Osijek and the fortress were owned by different families. The Korog family (1353–1472) ruled the longest.
The fortress under the Ottomans
The Ottomans conquered the city on August 14, 1526 under Makbul Ibrahim Pascha and destroyed it to the ground. His successor, Süleyman the Magnificent , had it rebuilt, creating the two parts of the fortress and the lower town. Osijek was an important traffic and trade center during the Ottoman period and remained so for 150 years. Suleyman the Magnificent was mainly known for the eight-kilometer-long wooden bridge built on his orders over the Drava and the surrounding marshland to the town of Darda. This bridge was considered a wonder of the world at that time. It was built by around 25,000 people in just two weeks.
The fortress in the time of Austria-Hungary
After the city and fortress were recaptured from the Ottomans by the Austro-Hungarian monarchy in the Great Turkish War in 1687 , a renewed expansion of the fortress began, as a second attack by the Turks had caused great damage to the building structure.
The work was carried out under the supervision of the Osijek fortress commander General Johannes Stephan von Beckers. The system was essentially expanded by the Austro-Hungarian military in 1712–1722 based on the Dutch lowland model (Dutch manner) and completed by 1760. It formed a combination of fortress and bourgeois settlement with predominantly baroque buildings. The necessary road network was named after military objects (Kasernenstrasse and Proviantstrasse) and after businesses (Glaserstrasse and Gewerbestrasse). After that, nothing fundamentally changed in the appearance of the fortress. Only a small part of the Turkish structure remained. At that time the three parts of the [City of Osijek] emerged as divided municipalities.
In 1786 the three previously independent municipalities merged to form the city of Osijek. A horse-drawn tram was set up to connect the relatively far apart parts of the city , which was the first south of Vienna and Budapest . The fortress almost completely lost its military importance in the 18th and 19th centuries, and its walls disrupted the transport links to other parts of the city.
In the centuries of its development, the place became home to many ethnic groups , in addition to the original Croats, Germans, Austrians, Hungarians and others had settled. Croatian was the colloquial language, but Latin and German were the official languages.
Fortified city from the 20th century
Part of the ramparts were laid down in 1923–1926. In the course of its 300 years of existence, the street names have changed frequently, and since the end of the 20th century they have been named after well-known Croatian scientists, historians and other culturally significant people. Nowadays the fortress is also called the old town. Next to the market square are the Franjo Kuhač music school, the parish church of St. Mihovil, the post office, the 2nd Osijek grammar school, the secondary school, a drawing school, the Osijek state archive, the Franciscan monastery (since 1938), the water gate (there is a memorial plaque inside to Baron Stephan von Beckers, the architect of the fortress), former arsenal, etc.
Buildings, streets and squares
Holy Trinity statue and square
The most important sight is the statue of the Holy Trinity, which has stood on the market square of the same name since the 18th century. It was built in 1729 after the plague had subsided , which had cost a not inconsiderable number of lives, on behalf of the widow of General Petraša in keeping a vow. The general was also one of the epidemic victims. The ensemble of the statue of the Holy Trinity, surrounded by the statues of St. Rochus ; St. Sebastian ; St. Rosalia and St. Katarina should protect the city from further epidemics. The group of sculptures also forms a fountain .
The Square of the Holy Trinity was laid out at the beginning of the 18th century and named after the group of columns there. The oldest name of this market was "Weinmarkt" because wine from Baranja was sold there every Wednesday and Saturday. In the course of history it had many names, such as "Hauptplatz", "Franz-Joseph-Platz", "Karađorđev-Platz" and "Partisanenplatz". On the market square there are former military buildings (Hauptwache and the military command with the oldest theater in Osijek, a German-speaking theater). The buildings have been preserved and largely renovated in the 21st century. They are used by administrations, the Slavonia Museum and institutions of the University of Osijek. There is also the historic town hall and a school building (boarding school and classic high school) on the square.
The road network
The Proviantstraße (today part of Ruđer-Bošković-Straße) connected the square with the old town promenade (Vatroslav-Lisinski-Platz), the Entenstraße (Josip-Bosendorfer-Straße) formed a connection to the church square (Juraj-Križanić-Platz). Ingenieurstraße, which was named after an engineering office located there, leads south from the main square. There is also Poststrasse (where the city's oldest post office was located) and Glaserstrasse (with the building of the trade association). In the southern part of the fortress there was a road to the three horseshoes at the beginning of the 18th century , which was named after the inn of the same name. The inn was known as the seat of the Osijeks Freemasons . Three barracks occupied the southern part of the street, while the apartment buildings stretched along the northern part. The characteristic of this street were seven taverns , of which «The Blue Carp» was the favorite inn of the ruler Joseph II during his visit to Osijek. The two most important streets of the fortress were Kohlhofferstraße (today's Franziskanerstraße), which, like Roman fortresses, connected the objects of the fortress with the military camp, as well as the main street (Franje-Kuhača street), which connects the eastern and western parts of the fortress city. Along here stood both military objects and town houses in a mix of baroque and historicism . The house of the musician Franjo Kuhač was particularly remarkable for its cultural and historical features. In 1874 a hospital was founded in the lower town together with the orphanage. In the northern part of the fortress were the Franciscan monastery and the Church of the Holy Cross, which were expanded in the first half of the 18th century. The monastery later became the headquarters of the first University of Osijek and Eastern Slavonia. The adjacent street was therefore given the name Faculty Street.
See also
Web links
Coordinates: 45 ° 33 ′ 39.9 ″ N , 18 ° 41 ′ 45.9 ″ E