Kalemegdan
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Kalemegdan01.jpg
Kalemegdan is the fortress that remained of the ancient city of Singidunum, today's Belgrade. The city was founded by a Celtic tribe called Scordisci in the 3rd century BC. Later on it was conquered by the Romans and became a part of 'the military frontier'—where the Roman Empire bordered 'barbaric Central Europe'.
The name Kalemegdan derives from the Arabic and Turkish languages and signifies the Fortress amidst battlefields. It is named Kalemegdan with reason.
Singidunum was defended by the Roman legion IV Flaviae which built a fortified camp on a hill at the confluence of the rivers Danube and Sava. In the period between AD 378 and 441 the Roman camp was being repeatedly destroyed in the invasions by the Goths and the Huns. The legend says that Atila's grave lies on the confluence of Sava and Danube (under the Fortress). In 476 Belgrade again became the borderline between the empires- Western Roman Empire and Byzantium, and the Slav- Avar State in the North.
The Byzantine Emperor Justinian rebuilt the Fortress around 535 In the following centuries it suffered continuos destruction under the Avar sieges. The Slavs (Serbs) and Avars had their 'state union' north of Belgrade. The Serbs left their region in present day Poland a couple of centuries before searching for new lands. During the 6th century Serbs and Avars were crossing the River Danube in Singidunum, going down South (sometimes all the way to Asia Minor, Turkey, and Greece) and going back prosecuted by the Byzantine armies. The Serbs and other Slavic tribes finally settled the region of Belgrade as well as the regions west and south of Belgrade in the beginning of the 7th century.
The name Belgrade, which in most Slavic languages means a white town or a white Fortress, was first mentioned in AD 878 The Fortress kept changing its masters: Hungary, Bulgaria, and then again Byzantium.
The Fortress remained a Byzantine stronghold until the 12th century when it fell in the hands of a newly emerging Serbian state. It became a border city of the Serbian Kingdom, later Empire, with Hungary. The hungarian king Bella gave the Fortress to Serbia in 11th century as a wedding gift (his son married Serbian princess Jelena). In 1404, after Serbian Empire collapsed, Belgrade was named the capital, and it remained in Serbian hands for almost a century.
132 years after the Battle of Kosovo, in 1521 the Fortress, like most parts of the Serbian state, was conquered by the Turks and remained (with short periods of the Austrian and Serbian occupation), under the rule of the Ottoman Empire until the year 1867 when the Turks withdrew from Belgrade and Serbia. It witnessed two Serbian Uprisings in the 19th century, the Great Serbian Migration in the 17th century, the Dark Ages of the Turkish Period.
The Fortress suffered further damages during the First and the Second world wars. After almost two millennia of continuous sieges, battles and conquests the Fortress is today known as the Kalemegdan fortress and is under the protection of the UNESCO world heritage.
Timeline
6000 BC: The Vinca culture flourishes in the territory of today's Belgrade.
267 BC: Scordisci founded Singidunum.
168 BC: The Illyrians are defeated by the Romans.
AD 378-441: The Roman settlement of Singidunum is destroyed by the Huns.
535: Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Emperor Justinian rebuilds the Kalemegdan fortress.
610: Serbs settle permanently at Singidunum, changing its name to Beograd.
868: The name Belgrade appears in a written document for the first time, in a letter from the Pope.
10th century: Belgrade taken over by Bulgaria, Hungary and Byzantium.
1182: The Serbs ally with Hungary and gain their full independence.
1404: Serbian Empire collapses, and Belgrade becomes the capital of Serbia.
1521: Belgrade falls to Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Great. Serbia is becomes part of the Turkish Ottoman empire for 300 years.
1526: The Battle of Mohács, between the Ottoman Empire and Hungary. Hungary is defeated and their king, King Louis II is killed. Hungary loses its independence.
1683: Vizier Kara Mustapha, the leader of the Ottoman army, suffers a great loss at the siege of Vienna and is forced to commit suicide in the city of Belgrade.
1688: The Austrians capture the fortress from the Turks.
1690: The Turks recaputure Kalemegdan.
1717: Austrian General Prince Eugene of Savoy captures Belgrade and northern Serbia.
1739: Belgrade and its inhabitants are ceded to Turkey by the Austrians.
1792: The Austrians arrange a treaty that states that no Janissaries may be admitted into Belgrade or any Serbian town.
1792-1795: In Constantinople, the treaty to keep out the Janizaries is annulled. They get into the fortress by fraud and killed Hadji Mustapha Pasha, and began a tyranny over the countryside.
1804: Đorđe Petrović, also known as Karađorđe or Black Đorđe, led a revolt against the Ottoman Empire.
1806: Karađorđe takes over the fortress of Kalemegdan.
1813: Serbia allies with Russia against Turkey, but Serbia was betrayed and the Turks return to Belgrade. They then took revenge because of Karađorđe's revolt and started a massacre and killed all the men who had not fled to Sumadija.
1815: Milos Obrenovic, prince of Serbia, leads a Serb revolt against the Ottoman Empire with the aid of Russia. He succeeds, but the settlement allows a garrison of Turkish troops to occupy the fortress.
1862: Two Turkish soldiers kill a young Serb. In the disorder a Serbian policeman is killed and another is hurt. The incident incites riots that continue throughout the night. The garrison then opens fire from the fortress onto Belgrade for four hours.
1866: The British convince the Ottomans to withdraw from the Fortress. Turks begin withdrawing from the Danubian cities; by 1876 no Turkish troops are left in Serbia.
1878: Serbia and Montenegro are again recognized as independent states.
1906: Austria-Hungary bans all livestock imports from Serbia, known as the 'Pig War', to but their plan backfires when Serbia establishes new markets for its goods in Greece, Egypt, Turkey, and Germany.
1914: At the outset of World War I, Austria-Hungary unsuccessfully attacks the fortress from the Danube.
1915: Austrian troops conquer the fortress as well as the rest of the country.
1918: Serbian troops recapture the fortress near the end of the war. Belgrade becomes the capital of Yugoslavia.
1941: The fortress is captured by Nazi Germany.
1944: American and British planes bomb the Nazi-occupied city of Belgrade.
1945: Belgrade is liberated by Yugoslav forces and their Soviet allies.
1999: NATO bombing campaign lasts for 3 months.
2000: The biggest demonstrations ever recordedin Serbia take place in the capital; Serbs overthrow the Milosevic dictatorship and establish democracy.
2003: Union of Serbia and Montenegro is proclaimed with Belgrade as its capital.
2004: More and more tourists again discover the beauties of the UNESCO protected ancient fortress.
Weblinks
- Kalemegdan and the Belgrade fortress (http://www.beograd.org.yu/cms/view.php?id=228351)
- Kalemegdan fortress in winter (http://www.totallybelgrade.com/winter-kalemegdan.htm)
- Kalemegdan Castle and Park (in English) (http://www.geocities.com/milorad_pavlovic/kalemegdan.html)