The Siege of Gvozdansko (Croatian: Opsada Gvozdanskog) was a siege of Gvozdansko Castle in the Kingdom of Croatia within Habsburg Monarchy. The battle around Gvozdansko and the siege of the castle lasted from 3 October 1577 to 13 January 1578, #Croatia#Hrvatska#Europe #
between the defending Croatian forces and the invading Ottoman army under the command of Ferhat-paša Sokolović. The battle resulted in an Ottoman victory with heavy losses on the Ottoman side, while all defenders died during the siege.
After the fall of Bulgaria, Serbia and Bosnia, the Ottoman Empire directed its forces towards Hungary and Croatia.
The Ottomans attempted to conquer the Gvozdansko Castle on several occasions. The first major attempt was in 1566. The second failed attempt was in 1561, when 8,000 Ottomans under the command of Malkoč-beg attacked the castle.
The third attempt was in 1574, when Ferhat-paša Sokolović tried to capture the castle by treachery. Another attempt in 1576 by Kapidži-paša also failed.
In early October, a large Ottoman army was led by Ferhad Pasha and Kapidži-pasha into central Croatia. On 3 October, these forces besieged Gvozdansko.
The fort was defended by around 300 men, mostly miners and soldiers, under the command of four experienced captains: Damjan Doktorović, Jure Gvozdanović, Nikola Ožegović and Andrija Stepšić.
One soldier managed to pass through Ottoman lines and reach the Croatian-held town of Steničnjak. However, the lack of soldiers prevented a counterattack. It was also expected that Gvozdansko would be able to withstand the siege until winter,
when the Ottoman withdrawal was predicted. Ferhad Pasha deployed the artilley on surrounding hills and ordered a prolonged bombardment of the fort. The siege prevented the supply of food and ammunition to the fort. There was also a lack of water.
The last supplies to the fort were brought in August. A part of the Ottoman army was left to keep Gvozdansko under siege, while Ferhad Pasha led the rest and attacked the remaining neighboring forts, including Ostrožac that was captured on 13 November.
After a short siege, the Zrin Castle, formerly the seat of the Zrinski family, was captured on 20 December. The fall of Zrin left Gvozdansko completely surrounded with Ottoman held forts and towns.
The main part of the Ottoman army joined the besieging force near Gvozdansko at the end of December. Around 5,000 troops with 30 cannons encamped around Gvozdansko, and about the same number of troops was positioned in its vicinity.
The fort was already under siege for more than 2 months. The defending force lacked food and ammunition and suffered from hunger, thirst, and cold, while many died or were wounded in combat. All calls for surrender were rejected.
Three major assaults on Gvozdansko were repelled on 10, 11 and 12 January, leaving only around 30 men still alive that held their positions on the last days of the siege.
The final assault was planned for the night of 12–13 January, but around midnight the lights in the fort went out. The commanders thought it was a trap and the attack was postponed for the morning.
The conquerors launched their assault at dawn on January 13, but from the works not a single shot was fired on them , although the defenders stood on the ramparts with weapons in their hands. When the Ottomans breached the castle gates at dawn, they found a terrific scene:
frozen, immobile bodies of the garrison, women and children who preferred to choose death from the winter and the hunger rather than surrender and become slaves.
The defenders continued to hold their watch even after death at the battlestations, as if by their last act they wanted to make known that they did not agree to surrender and slavery.
Because they did not encounter in their campaigns such a thing until then, the Turkish commanders were surprised but also amazed by the unprecedented courage and the sacrifice of the Croats.
Ferhad Pasha commanded that a Catholic priest be brought and the dead be buried in the Christian rite, with military honors.
In awe of the defendants of Gvozdanski, he freed the few remaining Christians of this region from the heavy taxes that had been set for other lands.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
The great Western Life-feeling is the necessity of being ones self, of preserving that within one which
cannot be compromised, which is synonymous with Soul, Destiny, Honor, Race.
The distorter’s idea of
“happy-end” is opportunistic, weak, degenerate, and revolting to the Western honor-feeling. The empty,
smiling, face, the uniform mind, the senseless chasing after noise, movement, and sensation, the obsession
with moneymaking and money-spending,
the rejection of all spiritual standards of attainment— all this
merely reflects the basic interpretation of Life as a seeking for a happy-end. For happiness one will
compromise anything, give anything, sell anything.
“America’s battle is yet to fight; and we, sorrowful though nothing doubting, will wish her strength for
it. New Spiritual Pythons, plenty of them, enormous Megatherions, as ugly as were ever born of mud,
loom huge and hideous out of the twilight Future on America;
and she will have her own agony, and her
own victory, but on other terms than she is yet quite aware of.”
— Thomas Carlyle
“Will the intellectually primitive upper class, obsessed as it is with the thought of money, reveal all at
once, in face of this danger, dormant moral forces that will lead to the real construction of a State and
Man reaches for all wisdom
Given to him to discover the secrets of the world
Where he's coming from, where he's headed, what he's striving for
The mystery of the world in his heart lies
A hand that gives, which forgives
A heart that doesn't hate anyone
Every cry, tear, name and homeland
What heaven writes is secret and true
Living in Love
Because every new day
In God's palm is inscribed
You have dominion over every kind of savage beast. But, you will say, do I have savage beasts within me? Yes, many of them. It is even an immense crowd of savage beasts that you carry within yourself. Do not take this as an insult.
Is not anger a small wild beast when it barks in your heart? Is is not more savage than the first dog that comes? And is not the trickery that crouches in a treacherous soul more ferocious than the bear of the caverns?… What kind of savage beast do we not have within us?…
You were created to have dominion; you are the master of the passions, the master of savage beasts, the master of serpents, the master of birds… Be master of the thoughts within you in order to become master of all beings.
The equalization of property is one of the things that tend to prevent the citizens from quarrelling. Not that the gain in this direction is very great. For the nobles will be dissatisfied because they think themselves worthy of more than an equal share of honors;
and this is often found to be a cause of sedition and revolution. And the avarice of mankind is insatiable; at one time two obols was pay enough; but now, when this sum has become customary, men always want more and more without end;
for it is of the nature of desire not to be satisfied, and most men live only for the gratification of it. The beginning of reform is not so much to equalize property as to train the nobler sort of natures not to desire more, and to prevent the lower from getting more;
The ancient citizen saw himself as defending the land of his ancestors, who were also his gods. His ancestors were inseparable from the ground of the city. To lose that ground was to lose the gods of the family.
Indeed, the loss of the city meant that the gods had already abandoned it. That is why, whenever a new city was about to be founded, the first public rite involved its members digging a trench to receive soil carried from their previous city,
representing the soil in which their ancestors had been buried. Citizens could then still say this was the land of their ancestors, terra patria…