Belgrade Fortress
The Belgrade Fortress, consists of the old citadel and Kalemegdan Park on the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, in an urban area of modern Belgrade, Serbia. Located in Belgrade's municipality of Stari Grad, the fortress constitutes the specific historical core of the city. As one of the most important representatives of Belgrade's cultural heritage, it was originally protected right after World War II, among the first officially declared cultural monuments in Serbia. The fortress was declared a Monument of Culture of Exceptional Importance in 1979, and is protected by the Republic of Serbia. It is the most visited tourist attraction in Belgrade, with Skadarlija being the second. Since the admission is free, it is estimated that the total number of visitors is over 2 million yearly.
Location
Belgrade Fortress is located on top of the high ending ridge of the Šumadija geological bar. The sandbank stretches at least from the city's Tašmajdan section, originating from the Miocene period, and the oldest stages of the ancient Pannonian Sea. The cliff-like ridge overlooks the Great War Island and the confluence of the Sava river into the Danube, and makes one of the most beautiful natural lookouts in Belgrade. It borders the neighborhoods of Dorćol, Stari Grad and Kosančićev Venac. It is bounded by 3 streets: Boulevard of Vojvoda Bojović, Tadeuša Košćuška, Pariska, plus the railway along the riverside.History
Classical Antiquity
Belgrade Fortress is the core and the oldest section of the urban area of Belgrade. For centuries, the city population was concentrated only within the walls of the fortress, and thus the history of the fortress, until most recent times, reflects the history of Belgrade itself. The first mention of the city is when it was founded in the 3rd century BC as "Singidunum" by the Celtic tribe of Scordisci, who had defeated Thracian and Dacian tribes that previously lived in and around the fort. The city-fortress was later conquered by the Romans, was known as Singidunum and became a part of "the military frontier", where the Roman Empire bordered "barbarian Central Europe". Singidunum was defended by the Roman legion IV Flaviae, which built a fortified camp on a hill at the confluence of the Danube and the Sava rivers. In the period between 378 AD and 441 the Roman camp was repeatedly destroyed in the invasions by the Goths and the Huns. Legend says that Attila's grave lies at the confluence of the Sava and the Danube. In 476 Belgrade again became the border between the empires: the Western Roman Empire and Eastern Roman Empire, and the Slav-Avar State in the north.The Celtic fortification was a primitive one, located on top of Terazije ridge, above the confluence of the Sava into the Danube, where the fortress still stands today. Celts also lived in small, open and fortified settlements around the fort, called oppida. Since it is not known for sure where the Celtic fort was; some historians suggest that it was rather close to the necropolises in Karaburma and Rospi Ćuprija. Celtic settlements belonged to the La Tène culture.
The original military camp was probably occupied by the soldiers from the Legio VIII Augusta from 46 AD to 69. Early Singidunum reached its height with the arrival of Legio IV Flavia Felix which was transferred to the city in 86 AD and remained there until the mid 5th century. The presence of Legio IV prompted the construction of a square-shaped castrum, which occupied Upper Town of today's fortress. Construction began at the turn of the 2nd century AD as since the early 100s, Legio IV Flavia Felix became permanently stationed in Singidunum. At first, the fortress was set up as earthen bulwarks and wooden palisades, but soon after, it was fortified with stone as the first stone fort in Belgrade's history. The remains can be seen today near the northeastern corner of the acropolis. The legion also constructed a pontoon bridge over the Sava, connecting Singidunum with Taurunum.
Rectangular castrum covered what is today the Upper Town and the Kalemegdan Park. The castrum had tall walls, built from the white Tašmajdan limestone and spread over the area of to, being shaped as an irregular rectangle.
Middle Ages
The Byzantine Emperor Justinian I rebuilt the fortress around 535. In the following centuries the fortress suffered continuous destruction under the Avar sieges. The Slavs and Avars had their "state union" north of Belgrade with the Serbs and other Slavic tribes finally settling in the Belgrade area as well as the regions west and south of Belgrade in the beginning of the 7th century. The name Belgrade, which, not just in Serbian but in most Slavic languages, means a "white town" or a "white fortress", was first mentioned in AD 878 by Bulgarians. The fortress kept changing its masters: Bulgaria during three centuries, and then the Byzantines and then again Bulgarians. The fortress remained a Byzantine stronghold until the 12th century when it fell in the hands of the newly emerging Serbian state. It became a border city of the Serbian Kingdom, later Empire with Hungary. The Hungarian king Béla I gave the fortress to Serbia in the 11th century as a wedding gift, but it remained effectively part of Hungary, except for the period 1282–1319.After the Serbian state collapsed following the Battle of Kosovo, Belgrade was chosen as the capital of Despot Stefan Lazarević in 1402. Major work was done to the ramparts which were encircling a big thriving town. The lower town at the banks of the Danube was the main urban center with a new built Orthodox cathedral. The upper town with its castle was defending the city from inland. Becoming a major trade and cultural center, Belgrade became a significant immigration town, with immigrants settling from other parts of Serbia, Dubrovnik, Bulgaria, Hungary, Germany, Italy and Venetia. Population blossomed, so the lower city of the fortress, which was the busiest part of the city, had to be significantly expanded.
Belgrade remained in Serbian hands for almost a century. After the Despot's death in 1427, it had to be returned to Hungary. An attempt by the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II in 1456 to conquer the fortress was prevented by Janos Hunyadi, saving Hungary from Ottoman dominion for 70 years.
Early Modern
In 1521, 132 years after the Battle of Kosovo, the fortress, like most parts of the Serbian state, was conquered by the Turks and remained, under the rule of the Ottoman Empire until the year 1867, when the Turks withdrew from Belgrade and Serbia. During the short period of Austrian rule, the fortress was largely rebuilt and modernized. It witnessed the Great Serbian Migration in the 17th century and two Serbian Uprisings in the 19th century, during the Turkish Period.During the Austrian occupation of northern Serbia 1717–39, several hospitals were established in Belgrade. The City hospital of Saint John was built within the fortress walls, but its exact location is not known. Emperor Charles VI signed the Belgrade City Statute in 1724, which mentions city hospital, city pharmacy, medics and midwives. The German municipality had low incomes so it had to ask the state for help and beneficence. The hospital is mentioned in the 1728 Census. It was a hospital already in 1719, later becoming the residence of Thomas Berger, the head of the hospital. After his death, his daughter continued to reside in the building. The hospital was moved to another location, into the newly constructed building in 1724. A small church was built next to it. This new hospital was quite small, with only 2 rooms, a kitchen and a basement, so it way not be the same city hospital.
Lazaret or a quarantine hospital is not mentioned in the documents, but it is safe to presume that it had to be formed during the viral outbreaks, as was usual in the time. The procedure in case of outbreaks was probably analog to the existing procedure in Buda, the capital of Hungary. Today unidentified disease ravaged Belgrade in 1730. Viral epidemic killed a lot of people. During the course of only two weeks, just the Jesuits buried 220 people and themselves lost 3 missionaries. The extremely massive plague outbreak hit the city in October 1738. As the Austrian army retreated in front of the advancing Turks, numerous civilians fled to the fortress, many of them being contagious. Having so many people in a cramped space, triage was not possible so the plague spread quickly. There are reports of the dead lying in the streets for days as there was no one to bury them. The Austrian garrison was decimated and the corpses of the soldiers who died of plague were burned with their personal properties.
After Austria lost the Austro-Turkish War of 1737–1739, northern Serbia, including Belgrade, was returned to the Turks. One of the provisions of the 1739 Treaty of Belgrade stated that Austria had to demolish all the fortifications and military and civilian building it had constructed during the occupation. Many Baroque buildings were demolished within the fortress. However, Austria didn't demolish the buildings outside of the fortress walls. That way, the House at 10 Cara Dušana Street, built 1724–1727, in the neighborhood of Dorćol survived, being today the oldest house in Belgrade.
The 1837 plague outbreak almost brought to the war between the ruling prince Miloš Obrenović and the Ottomans in the fortress. The outbreak began in Ottoman Empire in 1836, which had no medical protocols of any kind at the time, and prince Miloš blocked the borders immediately imposing the mandatory quarantine. A group of plague infected Ottoman nizams on the way to Belgrade was halted at the border in Aleksinac and placed in the quarantine, but majority of them fled and continued to Belgrade, spreading the plague on its path and ultimately reaching the fortress in the spring of 1837. The prince ordered full and strong siege of the fortress by the Serbian guardsmen, cutting the fortress off completely for six weeks. The pasha complained and threatened from inside the fortress, initially hiding and denying the disease, but the fortress Ottomans were reluctant to start military skirmish in this condition. The besieging was successful as the plague never spread to Belgrade.
Four outer city gates, with the adjoining walls and ramparts were demolished from 1862 to 1866. After the Ottomans fully evacuated the inner fortress in 1867, Serbian troops took over, but as the state was still only autonomous, Serbia was only to "manage it" and was not acknowledged as the proprietor of the fortress by the neighboring Austria-Hungary. First squad of Serbian soldiers, under the command of colonel Svetozar Garašanin, ceremonially replaced the Ottoman guardsmen on 18 April 1867. First action by the Serbian authorities, just 5 days after the Ottomans left in April 1867, was to rebuild the Ružica Church.
After the Ottoman withdrawal, newspapers in Austro-Hungary continuously published stories, backed by the military experts, that the fortress became strategically obsolete and that, having no value of any kind, Austrian army could destroy it in 24 hours. In the autumn of 1867 citizens were awaken by the heavy artillery fire. Ruling prince Mihailo Obrenović sent two batteries to the fortress and ordered them to fire at the fortress wall where the old wooden bridge was located. A barrage fire of 300 salvos from De Bange cannons shelled the fortress during the entire day. It remained unclear why the prince ordered this: he decided to demolish the fortress completely, as such stories spread among the citizens; he wanted to show to the Austrians that the fortress has its values and importance, and that it can't be destroyed in a day ; or he simply did it to spite the Austrians. The shelling also disturbed the citizens of Zemun, across the Sava, which was part of Austro-Hungary at the time, and some of the grenades which missed the target hit Austro-Hungarian soil, so the imperial government sent an official diplomatic note to Serbia, protesting the shelling and reminding the prince he is only a "caretaker" of the fortress.
After the takeover of the fortress, Serbian forces kept finding parts of the gallows, chains, gibbets and impalement stakes in the dungeons, used previously by the Ottomans to torture the prisoners. Official reports by the Serbian army hold claims by the soldiers of the "ghoulish, headless and limbless wraiths" and other abominations roaming the fortress. The army issued an order that, despite there was no enemy anymore, all guards must keep watch "at least in pairs". Mihailo's successor, prince and later king Milan Obrenović, ordered the leveling of the terrain in the eastern sections of the fortress and planting of the greenery and trees, which in time developed into the Kalemegdan Park.