Original scientific paper
Role of the Legrad Military District in the Defence against the Ottoman Empire - Special Emphasis on Novi Zrin
Dragutin Feletar
; Prirodoslovno matematički fakultet Sveučilišta u Zagrebu, Zagreb, Hrvatska
Abstract
Međimurje and Podravina were caught in the whirlwind of the events of the 16th and 17th centuries, in the defence against the spread of the Ottoman Empire. This in particular relates to the period from the fall of Virovitica in 1552 and Kaniža in 1600, when the border ran along the Mura and Drava Rivers. The leader of the defence organization was the landowner Zrinski family. For this reason, their fortresses – Legrad and Novi Zrin, located at the hydrographic confluence of the Mura and Drava River, were of special importance. Legrad played the role of the central defence point right up until the liberation of Kaniža in 1690, while Novi Zrin existed only from 1661 to 1664. The old Legrad fortress had already begun to be restored and expanded by Nikola Šubić Zrinski, soon after he purchased the Međimurje estate in 1546, while its construction was continued by Juraj Zrinski. At the end of the 16th century, Legrad became the seat of the Međimurje or Legrad Military District, which was under the Kaniža Command District, led by the Zrinski family. A system of fortifications was erected along the Mura River in Međimurje and along the Drava River in Podravina. A crafts and trade centre (suburbium) developed alongside the military fortress in Legrad, and it was proclaimed a free Royal trading town (oppidum). The fortress next to the Drava River had always housed a strong military contingent, and this was the sight of battles with the Ottoman forces. Legrad played an important role as the centre of the defence, even after the Zrinski family were imprisoned (1671), right up until the liberation of Kaniža in 1690. In 1661, in the midst of the efforts to successfully organize the battles to liberate the Kaniža region, Nikola Zrinski began the construction of the massive new late Renaissance / early Baroque lowland fortification Novi Zrin. This fortress was located on the left bank (Hungarian, then Turkish side) of the Mura River, at the confluence of the Kanižnica stream (principalis) and the Viszafolyo into the Mura River – the Kakonja locality just under Legradska gora. A modern fortress was erected, well connected with the Kaniža region, and also towards the free Hungarian pocket around the Kiskómarom fortress south of Lake Balaton. The Ottomans continued to carry out sieges against Novi Zrin, though they lost several large battles here. Zrinski lead an impressive army out of Novi Zrin, and penetrated through the Turkish territory right to Bude, and in early 1664 to Osijek, where he burned the Suleiman bridge. In June 1664, the Ottomans brought a massive army of some 70,000 men to Novi Zrin. The siege lasted until early July 1664, when the Turks blew up the fortress with a store of gunpowder. The weakened Turkish Army that was mobilized towards Vienna, was conquered by the Imperial Army near St. Gotthard (Modersdorf) on 1 August 1664. In the disgraceful treaty Peace of Vasvar, signed on 10 August 1664, the Ottomans requested the prohibition of any reconstruction of the Novi Zrin fortress.
Keywords
Croatia; Hungary; battles against the Ottoman Empire; the Legrad Military District; Novi Zrin; the Zrinski family
Hrčak ID:
72675
URI
Publication date:
16.9.2011.
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