Siege of Gvozdansko 1578
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Year | 1578 | Wikidata P585 (point in time) |
|---|---|---|
| Era | Early modern (1500–1799) | derived from year |
| Location | Croatia | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Europe | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | Croatian-Ottoman Wars | Wikidata P361 |
| Coordinates | 45.1330, 16.2150 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The siege of Gvozdansko (Croatian: Opsada Gvozdanskog) was an Ottoman siege of the fort of Gvozdansko in the Kingdom of Croatia in 1577–1578. In the 1570s, the Ottomans intensified their efforts to capture the valley of the Una River. A string of forts along the Una, centred around Gvozdansko and in possession of the Zrinski noble family, formed the main line of defense of Croatia since 1527. The fort held off Ottoman attacks in 1540 and 1561.
In 1575, Ferhad Bey Sokolović, Sanjak-bey of Bosnia, began an offensive on central Croatia. By the end of 1576, the defense system on the Una collapsed and most of the forts in the valley were captured, including Bužim and Cazin. While Gvozdansko withheld an attack in June after three days of fighting, the attack left the walls of the fort damaged. Ferhad Bey renewed the campaign in September 1577 and attacked the remaining Croatian-held forts in the area. The Ottoman army besieged Gvozdansko on 3 October, whose garrison numbered 300 soldiers and miners, under the command of Damjan Doktorović and three other Croatian captains. With the capture of the nearby fort of Zrin on 20 December, Gvozdansko was left completely isolated. Due to a lack of troops, there were no attempts to relieve Gvozdansko.
The final phase of the siege began in early January 1578. Around 5,000 Ottoman troops were involved in the siege, and a similar number were positioned at the approaches to Gvozdansko.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Siege of Gvozdansko (revision 1371059348), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; shortened by selecting paragraphs and trimming at a sentence boundary; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
Nearby battles
- Battle of Una 1483 · 16 km
- Battles of Glina (1991) 1991 · 25 km
- Croatian–Bulgarian battle of 926 926 · 27 km
- Battle of Hrvatska Kostajnica · 28 km
- Siege of Krupa 1565 · 28 km
- Battle of Brest (1592) 1592 · 36 km
Other battles of the Croatian-Ottoman Wars
- Siege of Klis 1536
Browse more: battles in Croatia · Europe · Early modern battles