Ostrvica or Ostrovica ( tr, Sivrice Hisar)
was a small fortified town built on one of the peaks of
Rudnik mountain
Rudnik (Serbian Cyrillic: Рудник, ) is a mountain in central Serbia, near the town of Gornji Milanovac. Its highest peak ''Cvijićev vrh'', named after geologist and biologist Jovan Cvijić, has an elevation of 1,132 meters above sea ...
, northwest of the town of
Rudnik.
After 1323/1324, when it was recorded for the first time, it belonged to the
Kingdom of Serbia
The Kingdom of Serbia ( sr-cyr, Краљевина Србија, Kraljevina Srbija) was a country located in the Balkans which was created when the ruler of the Principality of Serbia, Milan I, was proclaimed king in 1882. Since 1817, the Princi ...
,
Serbian Empire,
Moravian Serbia,
Serbian Despotate and
Ottoman Empire. In 1451 the Ottomans razed it to the ground.
Location
Ostrvica was the main castle in the Rudnik area.
It is assumed that its location protected the mines of Rudnik from the north, while another castle (of
Pavle Orlović) provided protection from the south. The two castles maintained visual communication by signals.
History
During the 14th and 15th centuries the people of the region and merchants from
Dubrovnik used Ostrovica castle as a haven during wars, first in 1323–1324 during the war between
Stefan Dečanski and
Stephen Vladislav. In 1398 Nikola Zojić , a governor of Ostrovica, retreated to Ostrvica after the failure of his attempt to overthrow
Stefan Lazarević
Stefan Lazarević ( sr-Cyrl, Стефан Лазаревић, 1377 – 19 July 1427), also known as Stefan the Tall ( sr, Стефан Високи / ''Stefan Visoki''), was the ruler of Serbia as prince (1389–1402) and despot (1402–1427), ...
and to establish direct vassalage to the Ottoman Empire.
Zojić took monastic vows to avoid the death penalty.
In 1414 voivode Mazarek is mentioned as a governor of Ostrvica and Rudnik.
Ostrvica was captured by the Ottomans several times, first in 1431 and again in 1438.
The Serbian despot recaptured it in 1443 during the
Crusade of Varna, but the Ottomans captured it again in 1444, only to be restored to Serbia later in the year.
Branković and Eirene used Ostrovica as their summer retreat, and had a mint in the castle.
When the Ottomans captured Ostrvica in 1451 they razed it to the ground. This was against the order of
Murad II.
described Ostrovica as the "town of Rudnik". He explained that it was founded by the Serbian King Miloš, captured by
Ottomans
The Ottoman Turks ( tr, Osmanlı Türkleri), were the Turkic founding and sociopolitically the most dominant ethnic group of the Ottoman Empire ( 1299/1302–1922).
Reliable information about the early history of Ottoman Turks remains scarce, ...
, recaptured by Christians to be captured again by the Ottomans on 19 May 1521.
See also
*
Konstantin Mihailović
*
List of fortifications in Serbia
References
{{Castles, fortresses and palaces in Serbia, state=autocollapse
Forts in Serbia
Medieval Serbian architecture
Gornji Milanovac