Czara Lazara 1, Kruševac, Serbia
Much has been written about exactly when Kruševac was built. It is first directly mentioned in a charter according to which Prince Lazar donates property and founds the Ravanica Monastery and, among other things, attaches to it “near Kruševac in Špizla Ognyan with his son Branko with the municipality and with the heritage.” The charter has not been preserved in its original form but in two copies: in the so-called Bologna Charter, dated 1377, and the so-called Vrdnik Chronicle, dated 1381. At that time, the princely capital was located here, from which he ruled his lands, as evidenced by the signature on a charter issued in 1387, which states: “in the famous city of Kruševac.”
However, it has been established that the construction of the Ravanica Monastery began in 1377, and for this reason, it can be considered reliable that Kruševac existed in 1377. The question of the time of its construction is still unresolved; most likely, it happened after the Battle of Maritsa, that is, at a time when the most powerful feudal lord of Serbia faced the necessity to build a strong fortress in the northern regions of the fragmented empire, in areas still far from Turkish devastation. Therefore, the time of Kruševac’s construction should be sought in the period between 1371 and 1377. It is impossible to assert exactly when Kruševac was founded because the city was definitely not built in one year. Even if the construction of Ravanica and other similar architectural structures lasted a whole decade, it is certain that the construction of the Kruševac fortress lasted at least several years. The small town was built earlier as a separate defensive complex, next to which another belt of walls with towers was later added, within which the Church of St. Stephen was built.
Kruševac quickly gained fame. As early as January 1387, Prince Lazar granted merchants from Dubrovnik a privilege “in the famous city of my brightness Kruševac.” Foreign delegations also arrived in Kruševac for diplomatic affairs, such as this one from Dubrovnik, consisting of Nikola Gundulić and Jakov Bavželić Prodančić. They visited Prince Lazar in December 1386 and January 1387.
The Turkish chronicler Neşri recounts that Lazar and the army of infidels perished in the Battle of Kosovo on the bank of “that Morava,” and historians found confirmation in this chronicle of folk legends that Lazar’s and his allies’ troops gathered somewhere around Kruševac. Historian Stojan Novaković held an opinion, now mostly rejected, that in 1389, immediately after the battle, the Turks captured Kruševac, Pristina, and all important mines and manufactories to secure the most favorable peace possible. The Turkish chronicler Aşıkpaşazade, who is generally considered unreliable, reports that Bayezid I in the year 793 Hijri, corresponding to 1391, “in the battle of Kruševac” defeated the Hungarian army, killed many enemies, and took about 2,000 warriors prisoner in a battle in which the Hungarian king himself participated.
After the Battle of Kosovo, Lazar’s heirs continued to live in Kruševac. In 1395, Princess Milica, with her sons Stefan and Vuk, confirmed previous privileges to the shepherd of Mount Athos, St. Panteleimon, and gave him new estates, among which were “a house in the city of Kruševac and the man Radoslav the Bulgarian.” It can be considered reliable that in 1398 the relics of Saint Petka were transferred from Vidin to Kruševac. Then Despot Stefan moved to Belgrade, which does not mean that he completely abandoned the other capitals, including Kruševac. One cannot speak of a transfer of the capital in the Middle Ages, since medieval rulers had the custom of changing their residence, i.e., not staying exclusively in one city. Although Stefan moved to Belgrade to be less exposed to Turkish attacks and closer to the Hungarians, he still signed documents in Kruševac, meaning he was there: “I, Lord Despot Stefan, agreed with Živka in Kruševac that I took his retinue and wax,” and in 1408 he sent a letter to the Dubrovnik municipality, which was “written in April, in Kruševac,” regarding the payment of the Novo Brdo customs. During the conflict between the despot brothers Stefan and Vuk, when Serbia was temporarily divided into northern and southern Serbia from 1409 to 1410, Kruševac was the capital of the South.
But besides its major role as an administrative center, Kruševac’s importance as a strategically important point increasingly came to the fore, as armies, whether from the north or south, began to clash on Serbian soil. At the same time, the Kruševac fortress was a constant target of attacks. When Sultan Musa invaded Serbia in 1413, according to our chronicler, he “defeated Despot Stefan at Vrbnica and destroyed Kruševac, Petrus, Stalać, and Koprijan.” Although probably only the suburbs were damaged this time, not only the city but also its surroundings suffered, because the chronicler adds that Musa “killed countless numbers of the Christian kind with the sword.” After Musa’s troops withdrew, as chronicler Konstantin “Philosopher” recounts, at the beginning of summer that same year, his opponents gathered in Kruševac: Bosnian prince Sandalj Hranić, Ban of Mačva Jovan Morović, and Turkish pretender to the throne Mehmed I; the coalition army went to pursue Musa.
Documents from Dubrovnik show that Despot Stefan continued to stay in Kruševac. He dated his letters “in Krušonje” in February 1417, and around that time Benko Marin Gundulić from Dubrovnik was with him in Kruševac, writing about the lease of customs in Srebrenica to Despot Mihailo Rastić. Moreover, when Stefan Lazarević divided the state into “powers,” the residence of one of them was in Kruševac.
However, everyday life in Kruševac, as in the rest of Serbia, was interrupted by Turkish raids that began at the end of 1425. The chronicler recorded: “Tsar Murad goes to Kruševac and plunders Serbia,” and Konstantin the Philosopher, describing the war in more detail, emphasizes: “He comes to Kruševac. He plunders some towns and returns again.” Murad II plundered part of Serbia, especially Kruševac and its surroundings, then withdrew. The war continued in 1426 and 1427 with serious consequences. The Sultan captured Kruševac and other towns already in 1426 and besieged Novo Brdo at the beginning of 1427. Describing these events, Mauro Orbini insists that Murad II’s arrival near Kruševac caused the Hungarian king Sigismund’s campaign to Belgrade, which prevented the Turks from occupying all of Serbia, and that is why the Sultan conquered only the city of Kruševac (la città di Crusceuaz) and some other lands (con alcune altre terre), then headed toward Novo Brdo. Naturally, besides the city, the Turks occupied the surroundings of Kruševac.
The Turks called Kruševac Aladža Hisar, the colorful city. Turkish sources note that churches were converted into mosques, and Kruševac immediately became a remote but important Turkish stronghold. When in 1428 the new Serbian despot Đurađ Branković concluded a treaty with the Sultan, he had to agree to the loss of Niš and Kruševac. Thus, a Turkish region was wedged into the despot’s territory right near Kruševac and Stalać. In Kruševac, the chief commander of the Turkish border settled with his garrison, who could easily keep an eye on Despot Đurađ and his country. The Turks had open roads from Kruševac to the inner regions of Serbia. Moreover, they always kept nearby, near Stalać, under strong guard, from 80 to 100 small boats to ferry horses and troops across the Morava at any moment. Since, besides Niš and Kruševac, Golubac was also in Turkish hands, and Belgrade was given to the Hungarians, Serbia was left without major cities, so Despot Đurađ immediately began building the fortress of Smederevo.
In early 1433, the French knight Bertrandon de la Broquière passed through the city, returning home from the East. He mentions that the city, which they call Korsebech, is one mile from the Morava River, then notes that Sinan-bey, the border commander, a Turkish Greek to whom the Sultan entrusted the administration of the entire territory, lives in the city. Sinan-bey was considered brave, wise, and strict; he carefully controlled the crossing over the Morava, which formed the border with the Serbian state. He allowed crossing the river only to those he knew or those who had a letter from the Sultan or the Rumelian beylerbey. The ships on the Morava were also under Sinan-bey’s command. No Christian could see them; they were guarded by 300 men who changed every two months. During his stay in Kruševac, the Frenchman witnessed a touching meeting that made a deep impression on him. He saw a very beautiful, noble woman “from the Kingdom of Hungary,” who was captured by a Turkish Hungarian and kept as his wife, “and when she saw us, she wept bitterly and had not yet renounced our faith,” concludes Bertrandon de la Broquière’s description of his stay in Kruševac.
Kruševac increasingly became a target not only of Turkish but also Hungarian attacks. When the Ottomans invaded southern Hungary and Transylvania, the Hungarians began attacking Serbia. A heterogeneous army consisting of Hungarians, Poles, and Czechs under the command of Jovan Markali, assisted by the northern ban Franjo Talovac, crossed the Danube near Golubac on the night of June 19, 1437, and reached Stalać, where Turkish ships were located. They burned some of the ships and sent others down the Morava to the Danube. Some Turkish guards managed to escape; others were killed by the Hungarians, and on June 22 they destroyed all settlements up to Kruševac. The next day, Sunday, June 23, Hungarian soldiers arrived in Kruševac around noon and completely burned it. The next day, the army, finding several ships on the Morava, crossed to the despot’s land, although they were ordered not to cross it, so they hurried north to Kovin. The Hungarian invasion was talked about in Europe and well remembered in Serbia. King Sigismund already indicated at the end of September 1437 that he sent the army precisely to burn and destroy the city of Kruševac (ad comburrendum et anichilandum quoddam castrum Crusonjacz) and the Turkish ships on the Morava. In our chronicles, on the contrary, it is mentioned under 1437 that “the Hungarians set fire to the Turkish forests near Kruševac,” and one chronicle specifically mentions that “the Hungarians set fire to the city of Kruševac.”
The Hungarian invasion of 1437 accelerated the Turkish campaign against Serbia, which ended with the fall of the Serbian state (despotate) in 1439. When Jovan Hunyadi and Despot Đurađ Branković waged the “Long War” against the Turks, in the autumn of 1443, according to Turkish sources, their army captured, destroyed, and burned Kruševac, then continued toward Niš and Pirot. However, when the crusaders returned to Hungary in early 1444, Kruševac and other places they temporarily occupied remained in Turkish hands. But already in the summer of that year, after the conclusion of the Hungarian-Turkish truce, the despot Đurađ was returned his state with 24 cities, among which, as Polish historian Długosz says, was Kruševac (Krušonets).
How long Kruševac remained under Serbian rule is difficult to say. One can even doubt that it was truly handed over to the despot. A chronicle allegedly created between August 1444 and July 1445 shows that the territory of Kruševac, Toplica, and Dubočica was under Turkish control. Notes in the margins of a book reporting changes from 1445 to 1455 also testify that the territory of Kruševac was under the Turks for a whole decade after 1444. It mentions many villages belonging to Kruševac or villages that still exist today in the surroundings of Kruševac. Since the Hungarian-Turkish war on Serbian territory was not yet over, the Kruševac area, recently captured by the Turks, again became a battlefield.
When in the summer of 1448 Jovan Hunyadi gathered part of his troops in Hungary, crossed the Danube, and broke through to Kruševac along the Morava, then descended to Kosovo, where Sultan Murad II was defeated in a three-day battle from October 17 to 19. During the retreat, Jovan was captured by Despot Đurađ but was released on condition that he pay compensation for the damage caused to Serbia by the Hungarian army. However, according to Bonfini and Mauro Orbini, the Sultan decided to punish Despot Đurađ for releasing Hunyadi, so the next year he sent Feriz-bey with 47,000 fighters to the Serbian border, ordered him to restore Kruševac and from there to attack the despot’s land with fire and sword, which Feriz-bey did.
However, the restoration of Kruševac by the Turks again made it a target of Hungarian attacks. When in the spring of 1454 a large Turkish army marched into Serbia, Sultan Mehmed II was personally with it. He arrived near Kruševac (sotto Croxevaz), camped, and stayed for several days while his men plundered the surroundings. When the Sultan returned to Sofia with part of the army, he left three sanjak-beys “under Kruševac,” as well as Feriz-bey, Isaković, and Esa-bey Avranezović with about 30,000 horsemen who ravaged the country and were based in Kruševac. Therefore, Despot Đurađ appealed to Hungary for help, making great efforts to gather an army to fight the Ottomans. Finally, on September 29 of the same year, Jovan Hunyadi crossed the Danube with his troops and Đurađ’s cavalry, headed south from Belgrade, reached Kruševac, unexpectedly attacked the Turks, and on October 1 Sanjak-bey Isaković and Esa-bey Avranezović were killed. The captured commander of Kruševac, Feriz-bey, was taken to Smederevo and handed over to the despot near Niš and brought to Belgrade. The capture of the Kruševac commander made a strong impression, so even the Serbian chronicler noted that “Jankula captured Feriz-bey in Kruševac.” Despite this, in the same 1454, the Sultan enslaved about 50,000 men and women from Serbia, especially from the surroundings of Kruševac.
After the fall of Novo Brdo under Turkish rule (June 1, 1455), the Sultan, by treaty with Despot Đurađ, obtained all territories south of the Western Morava, including, of course, Kruševac. But for Mehmed II, concluding peace was primarily important to free his forces for war against Hungary. Already the next year he marched on Belgrade with a large army. Preparing for its siege, he brought much heavy and bulky siege equipment to Kruševac and also built a foundry in the city itself, where foreign masters manufactured mortars and cannons. Thus, Kruševac became an important Turkish stronghold for conquests in the north. It remained so in the following years. Already in April 1458, an army of about 15,000 arrived in Kruševac together with the Rumelian beylerbey Mahmud Anđelović. The Turks plundered all of Serbia up to Belgrade and returned with great booty to Kruševac, which, as explicitly stated, is two days from Smederevo and Belgrade. News reached Venice through Hungary that Beylerbey Anđelović brought a large number of carpenters and shipbuilders from Constantinople and Gallipoli to Kruševac. They intended to build small boats and launch them on the Danube. At the beginning of the next year, even more precise reports arrived in Hungary, stating that 1,200 carpenters and shipbuilders from Greeks, Turks, and representatives of other nations arrived in Kruševac to build galleys and fustas, which the Sultan intended to deploy on the Morava and Danube near Belgrade to make aid to that city impossible.
After the fall of Smederevo (1459), the Turkish border line moved north, so the battles around Kruševac ceased. Hungarian King Matthias Corvinus still remembered his father Jovan Hunyadi’s successful campaigns on Kruševac in 1466 and regretted that he, under pressure from other troubles, could not wage war against the Turks. Ten years later, when an army from Hungary defeated the Smederevo governor Ali-bey Mihaloglu on the Danube, Sultan Mehmed II himself marched through Serbia against the Hungarians. At the end of 1476, he stayed with his army in Kruševac, then continued north toward the Danube.
Kruševac was the scene of Hungarian-Turkish conflicts in 1480 and 1481. By order of Hungarian King Matthias Corvinus, in November 1480, an army under the command of Pavle Kinizsi, supreme commander of southern Hungary, crossed the Danube below Smederevo and, raiding settlements, reached Kruševac. During the retreat, more than 60,000 Serbian refugees, men with women and children, who dragged all their movable property on carts, crossed into Hungary with them. The next year, history seems to have repeated itself. At the head of the army, besides Kinizsi, were Serbian despot Vuk Grgurević, Dmitar Jakšić, and Belgrade captain Ladislav Rozgonyi. They destroyed the Turkish fleet on the Danube, defeated the commander of Golubac, and arrived in Kruševac, where they stayed for 12 days. “With fire and sword” they devastated the areas they passed through and, along with rich booty, took with them, besides 1,000 Turks, over 50,000 Serbian poor people, whom the Hungarian king settled in Banat. This campaign is recorded by a Serbian chronicler with the words: “The wolf despot captures Braničevo and devastates Kruševac.” Of course, these raids from Hungary could not save Kruševac or Serbia from Turkish rule. Serbia was further plundered by them, and the emigration of people to areas beyond Sava and Danube accelerated. Moreover, these invasions accelerated Turkish campaigns into Hungary itself.
However, after the final fall of the Serbian Despotate, when the Turkish border moved to the Danube, there were fewer and fewer battles around Kruševac, and it increasingly lost its former strategic importance, thus remaining only an administrative center of the region. Soon after coming under Ottoman rule, it became the residence of a sanjak. The income of the Kruševac sanjak, collected from two cities, 37 villages, 6 mezgirs (meadows, wastelands), and the Ljubostinja Monastery, amounted to 8,000 ducats. A significant number of Christian spahis serving as derbendjis (armored horsemen) in the Turkish army are mentioned in the Kruševac area. It is known that several prominent Ottoman officials of the 15th century were born in Kruševac or spent part of their lives there. In descriptions of the Ottoman Empire around 1500, Kruševac is regularly mentioned among the sanjaks.
Besides its major role as a political center of Serbia and an important strategic point in the Turkish-Hungarian struggle, Kruševac was also important as an economic center. In the time of Despot Stefan Lazarević, there was a small trading colony from Dubrovnik in Kruševac. The inhabitants of Dubrovnik are mentioned in Kruševac in 1414, 1417, 1421, and 1424.
Since with the disappearance of Christian states the entire Balkan Peninsula became a single customs territory, the inhabitants of Dubrovnik, establishing their relations with the Porte, used Kruševac as a trade hub. They were attracted by the rich nature and favorable geographical position, as they had previously done business there. It is reliably known that in the 1480s, the inhabitants of Dubrovnik traded and lived in Kruševac. Over time, the Dubrovnik colony in Kruševac grew larger and by the 16th century was numerous and well-known, mainly trading in livestock and agricultural products, especially wax. Through Kruševac, the inhabitants of Dubrovnik moved further north and founded their colonies in Belgrade, Smederevo, and Vidin. Members of these colonies maintained business ties with the inhabitants of Dubrovnik in Kruševac.
Based on written sources, the appearance of the medieval city of Kruševac can be reconstructed. Its visible remains are the ruins of a powerful tower, part of a rampart 23 m long, and the court church of St. Stephen, called “Lazarica,” recently renovated.
The medieval Kruševac was about 300 meters long north-south and about 200 meters east-west. At an equal distance from the church are two groups of ruins. The one to the northeast is part of the citadel, and the one at the opposite end represents a group of public buildings. The citadel consists of Lazar’s tower, ramparts, remains of a moat, and a small tower. This part represents the “small town” as opposed to the rest of the “big town.”
Outside the citadel, a cistern for collecting water was found. The big town was surrounded by a double rampart, on which remains of five smaller towers and the western gate were found. In the section of secular buildings, four buildings built at the same time by the same masters were discovered. The main one, intended for residential needs, had, besides a porch and vestibule, three rooms, one of which apparently served as a hall, and remains of a stove were found in it. The second building was probably a stable, and the other two auxiliary buildings. It is assumed that this part of the buildings was the court of Prince Lazar; unfortunately, the buildings closer to the church, and more significant, are completely destroyed.
Kruševac was destroyed several times during Musa’s campaign in 1413 and in the war from 1425 to 1427. It was found partially destroyed in early 1433 by the Frenchman Bertrandon de la Broquière, who described it as follows: “And this city is small and very well fortified with a double wall, which was demolished at the top where the loopholes were, and there was also a small town, which is now demolished.”
The Turks began to destroy Kruševac, and the Hungarians continued. When they arrived at the “city and fortress of Kruševac” in June 1437, they set fire to the citadel where the Turks had lived before, as well as other buildings “of the fortress and city.” Therefore, they, by their own words, celebrated St. John’s Day more lavishly than ever in their lives. They completely burned the fortress and city (dictum totum castrum et civitatem cum adiacentibus ignis voragine ad nihilum redigi fecimus). Although Hungarian sources directly claim that Kruševac was completely destroyed, the city still existed in 1437, at least as a military stronghold. But the demolition of its remains continued later. The crusaders burned it in 1443, so probably after this campaign, the city of Kruševac remained completely in ruins. The history of Bonfini and Mauro Orbini shows that even the army could no longer stay there. According to them, due to its strategic importance, around 1449 the Turks “restored” Kruševac, which “was destroyed.” The city commander Feriz-bey brought a large number of masons and other craftsmen from neighboring cities “to restore and strengthen Kruševac.” They fortified the city with embankments, moats, and towers so that the garrison could withstand any siege.
The best-preserved part of Prince Lazar’s former capital is the court church of St. Stephen, the so-called Lazarica. Very little remains nearby of the harsh city of Kruševac, as it was called by Konstantin the Philosopher. Today, the remains of the donjon, through which one entered the city, and part of the adjoining eastern rampart have been preserved. Inside the tower walls, a corridor with stairs leading to the upper levels and opening onto the city ramparts is still preserved. One of the features of this tower is that its walls are faced with pebbles, which is a real rarity and probably one of the reasons why the Turks called the entire fortress the Colorful City. The territory of the former fort has been turned into a park, where a museum is also located. The park is almost completely neglected, except for the area around the church. The ramparts, as well as the remains of other buildings, are very poorly preserved, unmarked, and unprotected from vandals. Part of the walls was demolished in the last century for the construction of houses, during which stone from the fortifications was probably used.
Sources:
https://www.mycity-military.com/Stari-srednji-i-novi-vek/Krusevac-u-srednjem-veku.html
