![]() ![]() Szigetvár (Hungarian for “Island Castle”) was bounded by water on three sides, limiting the Turks’ approach and enhancing the strong fortress as a force multiplier. On August 6 the Turks made a general assault which was repulsed. Ailing and gout-ridden in the 46th year of his reign-the longest of any Ottoman sultan-Suleiman established an observation point on Similehov Hill and delegated field command to his grand vizier, Sokollu Mehmed Pasha. Suleiman resolved to eliminate Szigetvár and Zrinski before pressing on to Vienna. Leading the garrison was Croatian-born Count Nikola IV Zrinski, a veteran of the 1529 siege of Vienna and numerous other engagements. After reaching Belgrade on June 27, however, he learned of a devastating raid on the Turkish encampment at Siklós from Szigetvár, a castle in Hungary garrisoned by some 2,300 Croatian and Hungarian soldiers. On May 1, 1566, Suleiman led a 150,000-strong army from Constantinople in an all-out campaign to take Vienna. ![]() Intermittent but indecisive fighting between the rival empires followed. In 1529, however, Suleiman’s attempt on Vienna-the ultimate central European prize-ended in failure. In 1521 Ottoman Sultan Suleiman I, known to his subjects as “the Lawgiver” and to Europeans as “the Magnificent,” seized Belgrade, and five years later he defeated and killed King Louis II of Hungary at Mohács, thus dividing Hungary and Croatia between the Hapsburg and Ottoman empires. The Siege of Szigetvár, 1566: The Ottoman Empire's Pyrrhic Victory in Hungary Close ![]()
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