Belgrade fortress

The fortress on the hill and at the mouth of river Sava and Danube is a stratified and very complex monumental compaund that arose in a long span dating from 2nd to 18th century. In the second century A.D. on the location of the present day Fortress a Roman castrum was built as a first permanent army camp for the IV Flavia legion. After the destruction by invading Goths and Huns in 378 and 441 the compaund was rebuilt  in the furst decades od the 6th century. Less than a century later it is destroyed by Avars and Slavs. 

On the ruins of the antique castrum arose the first Slavic settlement, that contemporaries know under the name of Belgrade starting from the 9th century. It is only by the middle od the 12th century, under Byzantine rule, that castel – the first new medieval fortification – was built, in the western corner of the present Upper town.

During the rule of king Stefan Dusan, in the fourth decade of the 14th century, a new fortification along the bank of river Sava is built and connected with the castrum uphill. The main medieval fortifications were built at the beggining of the 15th century when Belgrade became the capital of Serbia.

After the Turkish conquest in l521 and all the way till the end of the 17th century the Belgrade Fortress has not been restored in any significant way. A new period started with the Austro-Turkish war in 1688. As the vital fort in the midst of war operations that lasted throught the 18th century, the Fortress underwent three reconstructions. During Austrian rule, 1717-1739, new artillery fortification have been built. After defeat Austria lost Belgrade and according to peace agreement all the newly built fortifications had to be torn down. The following Turkish reconstruction aimed  to return the Fortress to its dominant defensive role.  In that period – up to the end of the 18th century – the Belgrade Fortress received its final form. The last Turkish garisson left Belgrade Fortress in April 1867.  

During the 19th and 20th century, the Belgrade Fortress gradually lost its past military importance. During the First and Second World War the Fortress was sustained great destructions.

           

           

Location

Site name and location: Belgrade fortress, City of Belgrade, Serbia
Monument type: Cultural monument of special importance
Property of: Republic of Serbia
Under responsibility of: Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments, Belgrade
Institution in charge of: PE 'Belgrade Fortress'
Kralja Petra st. 71/ III, 11000 Belgrade
phone/ fax: +381 (0)11 26 20 685
phone/ fax: +381 (0)11 26 29 756
web: www.beogradskatvrdjava.co.rs