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Novi Sad - Petrovaradin Fortress
“A town on the rock firm
as faith”
In Latin “Petra” means
a rock, “var” in Hungarian means a town, and “din” in
Turkish stands for faith. The name Petrovaradin is the
combination of these words, which in literal translation
of our people means – “a town on the rock firm as faith”.
PETROVARADIN FORTRESS AND ITS SECRETS
Today Petrovaradin
Fortress is an integral part of the urban entirety of
Novi Sad. The fortress was built according to the system
Voban. It is among several remaining fortresses in the
West and Central Europe that is almost totally preserved.
“Gibraltar on the Danube” extends across 112 hectares,
has four floors in the ground, more than 16 km of tunnels,
around 12 000 loopholes and 13 gates.
Location
Petrovaradin
and the fortress are on the road, which from the state
border with Hungary, across Novi Sad, leads to Belgrade.
The nearest railway and interurban bus stations are
in Novi Sad and Petrovaradin. To reach the foot of the
fortress, you can take Public Transportation Service
buses 3 and 9, as well as interurban buses 61, 62, 63,
64, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77.
Tourist Information
Guide Service
of the Museum of the Town of Novi Sad gives tourist
Information at Petrovaradin Fortress. The service is
located in the facilities of the Museum of the Town
of Novi Sad in Topovnjača Building, from where the tours
to the underground military galleries at the fortress
start.
HISTORY OF THE FORTRESS
Origin
At the present place of the fortress, there
used to be a medieval fortress built between 1247 and
1252, and before that one there were Celts, Romans,
Huns, Avars. The Slavs and Avars settled the area in
the VI and VII centuries. The new fortress was mentioned
in written documents in 1347 for the first time as the
residence of various commanders.
According to the latest evidence of the
archaeological research, the traces of human life on
the fortress date back from Palaeolithic period.
The Fortress was completed in 1780. Inaccessible
for military equipment of that time, it occupied the
dominant position in regard to the surroundings and
became known as “The Gibraltar on the Danube”.
The Influence of the Ottoman Empire
During history,
the fortress changed masters and appearance, thus in
1526 the Turks occupied it, under the leadership of
Sulejman II the Magnificent. They built a pontoon in
order to cross the river more easily. While in war with
Austria, the Turks left the Fortress several times but
also returned when it had a Lower and Upper Town. In
the suburb, there was Suleiman-han mosque as well as
Muslim quarters, but also one Christian quarter. The
Turks ruled the medieval Petrovaradin Fortress for 161
continually, from 1526 to 1689.
The Reconstruction of the Fortress
The Austrian
Army conquered the Fortress in 1691 under the leadership
of the Count Ludwig Badenski. According to the projects
of the French military architect Sebastian Voban (who
made projects for about 60 fortresses in Europe), the
Austrian military engineers started building a completely
new fortress in 1692. The new Voban’s system of fortification
implied lower walls, i.e. bastions and ramparts, since
the construction had to adjust to the plain area – spreading
spatially and entering the bowels of Petrovaradin Fortress
with underground passages. Besides German workers, who
were paid for their work, the other workers in the construction
of the fortress were mostly vassals, convicts and prisoners
of war. The construction was stopped in 1694 because
of the Turkish attack, but it never became theirs again
since they retrieved towards Belgrade due to the lack
of food and cholera epidemic. The memory of that event
is engraved on the portal of the Eastern Gate that leads
towards the Upper Town. The Austrians built a triangular
bridgehead the same year, which was the beginning of
Novi Sad. The present church at Tekije was built in
1881 as a memory of the great victory of Christians
over the Turks in 1716. It was built to honour Blessed
Virgin Mary, who according to the legend came to the
present Austrian army commander’s dream and told him
about the victory.
Settling the Fortress
Civil population
started settling the foothill after 1702. There were
around 50 town houses built in baroque style where Catholics,
mostly Germans lived. Non-Catholics could not get a
house nor the citizen’s rights here. That is why the
Serbs, Jews, Cincars and other nations crossed the river
and created a settlement, predecessor of the present
Novi Sad.
Adaptation, restoration and conservation
of the facilities at the Fortress started in 1951 because
it stopped serving as a military center in 1948.
Along St. Teresa Bastion, i.e. Empress Maria
Theresa’s Bastion, on the ground floor of the Long Barracks,
in the shadows of the ash treetops, a line of ateliers
of Novi Sad fine and applied art artists are arranged.
These rooms (besides barber’s shop and timber yard)
were once used for technical services and craft workshops:
boot makers, shoemakers, tailors, saddlers, gunsmiths,
locksmiths, carpenters, builders, blacksmiths, wheelwrights,
etc.
The members of the Painting Circle work
here today. Ateliers are often open for public when
the artists are there. The Museum of the Town of Novi
Sad, The Historical Archive and Hotel “Varadin” are
located on the upper Fortress.
Petrovaradin
Petrovaradin
was of exceptional traffic importance, because all
the main roads went across this area. It connected
Senta and Szeged, Žabalj and Temissoara, Vilovo and
Pančevo. Even since the end of the XVIII century,
there was the Central Penal Institution of the Military
Court of the Slavonian General Command in Petrovaradin.
Vladimir Jovanović, one of the leaders of the Serbian
Liberation Movement was in this Institution because
of the suspicion that he participated in the plot
against Mihajlo Obrenović. There was also Vasa Pelagić
because of the preparation of the rebellion against
the Turks in Bosnia, Anton Gustav Matoš, a Croatian
writer because he deserted the army, Josip Broz Tito
and many others.
Text source: Tourist
Information Centre - Novi Sad
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