Smederevo Fortress small town

Another medieval Serbian capital on the Danube coast was Smederevo. When, after the death of Stefan Lazarevic, the despot Djurdja Brankovic could not stay in Belgrade taken over by the Hungarians, he built a new capital in Smederevo. He chose the place as far away from the Turks as possible, with its reliance on the Danube and the Hungarian border. There is a plain here, and a "water city" was built, surrounded by the Danube and the Jezava, and a wide trench with water was dug on the third side. (small) town.

Such inscriptions are rare at all, and this is the only example in the territory of the former Yugoslavia. There are more of them in Byzantium, and perhaps a model for the walls and towers was taken from that side, which is understandable when one knows that the works were led by the Byzantine Cantacuzen, brother of Giurgiu's wife Jerina.

The town of Smederevo was (except for the fortified towns) one of the largest medieval fortresses in Europe (one side of its triangular base is about 550 meters). The nucleus was represented by the so-called triangle. A small town, at the top of the Big, again a triangular city. This larger section was built immediately after the Small Town (which was completed in 1430). The small town had 6 and the big city had 19 more - a total of 25 large square towers. The small town served Despot Djurdj as a fortified castle, of which the only large halls remained the four two-part windows on the canvas to date, and the expanse of the Big City was needed to house a large crew of up to several thousand people, such as according to some, the number of attackers was tens of thousands.

Although the fifteenth century is already a great time of firearms, and although these weapons are widely used by the Serbs, and especially the Turks - Smederevo city is nevertheless conceived as a city built for the fight and defense of cold weapons. There are no cannon seats, unless the cannons were mounted only on platforms of tall (and over 15 m) towers - but these could only have been smaller tools. Having occupied it, the Turks (in 1480) reinforced it in this sense, adding to it, in front of all three corners, one more modern low battery tower for defense.

Today, the whole large complex is in ruins, but there is no long time when it was not so: during the First World War and the crossing of the Austrians across the Danube, the old town was the most heavily bombed (even with 42 cm cannons) and badly damaged. Then, in the Second World War, it was devastated by a large explosion of ammunition that was housed there. And finally, before the end of the war, the British bombers of the air completed its demolition. Thus, the city of Smederevo, from the most beautiful and preserved medieval city, has remained to this day as one of the most ruined, some of which, even from the explosions of the curved tower, are a life-threatening passer-by. This whole architectural complex would require urgent and extensive protection and conservation intervention, because, apart from partial afforestation in a makeshift park and relatively minor conservation works, nothing serious has been done so far, which is the most impressive old monument of its kind in the country.

Basic information:

The area of ​​small and big city, according to the 1975 diameter, is 11,3272 ha. It is sandwiched between the right bank of the Danube and the mouth of the Jezava shaped irregular triangle. Since it also had a trench around the Big City, the Fort belonged to a type of so-called water fortifications, though it was not built so that the foundations were in the water.

The parallel side to the Danube is 550m, the second to the Jezava 400m, and the third to the town 502m. It is actually a smaller picture of the fortress of Constantinople. Thus an artificially and mentally crafted military fort with a smaller and larger triangle, two canals, then Roman and Serbian built monuments.

This monumental colossus of Serbian military architecture, surrounded on all three sides by water, seemed invincible. Yet, world events, strong breakthroughs by the Turks, and Serbian strife have accelerated the fall of Smederevo, a witness to Serbia's creative power. The heavy tents, many years of exhausting work on building the city, left traces in the people's memory and tied the curse to the name of his wife Jerina.

From the once small suburb, which was located along the Danube coast and beyond the city walls, because the clearness of the Kalemaydan city field had to remain in front of these, it developed over the centuries, and certainly especially after 1867, today a large town Smederevo.

In addition to the Tower with the cross and the inscription, the Small Town contains two other interesting building elements.

Preston Hall:

The Preston Hall, resting on the north wall facing the Danube, is one of the most representative buildings of our medieval architecture.

It features bifore - four large double-glazed windows overlooking the Danube, carved in stone with Gothic and Romanesque arches. There were despot living rooms and a reception room. The famous trade agreement between Venice and Despotovina was signed in this hall.

Donjon Tower:

The Donjon Tower was the last retreat and defense. In this tower with walls over 4 meters thick, prominent figures withdrew during the Turkish attacks.

An inscription tower:

On one of the towers of Smederevo's small town there is a large inscribed brick, which testifies to the year of construction of the fort. Due to the cross built above the inscription, this tower is also known as the "Cross Tower" or the Tower of the Cross.

Inscriptions such as this are rare at all and can only be found in the territory once covered by Byzantium, and this is the only example in the territory of the former Yugoslavia.

The original text reads:
“V Christ of God the faithful despot Gurg, gentleman of the Serbs and the Seas of Zeta; by his command this city was built in the summer of 6938 (1430).
By order of his, this city was built in the year 6938 (1430).

This epitaph of imposing dimensions - a historic rarity - is 10.5 meters wide, with a letter height of 35 cm.

The windows look north across the Danube. To the left is the Donjon Tower, the last defense and shelter of court nobility in the event of an attack. At the bottom of the Donjon Tower is a gate, one of several exits to the river if the fortress could no longer defend itself, so the only evacuation of important figures and the remaining crew remained.

All photos are personally mine. Photographed by phone.