Soko Grad ( sr, Соко Град) is a former town and medieval fortification near

Ljubovija Ljubovija ( sr-cyr, Љубовија, ) is a small town and municipality located in the Mačva District of western Serbia. As of 2011, the population of the municipality is 14,469 inhabitants. Settlements Aside from the town of Ljubovija, the mun ...

, western

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe, Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Bas ...

. The fortress was notable for never being conquered by an army.

History

The fortress complex is dated to

medieval Serbia Serbia in the Middle Ages refers to the medieval period in the history of Serbia. The period begins in the 6th century with the Slavic migrations to Southeastern Europe, and lasts until the Ottoman conquest of Serbian lands in the second half ...

, however the original fort was built by the

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

emperor

Justinian I Justinian I (; la, Iustinianus, ; grc-gre, Ἰουστινιανός ; 48214 November 565), also known as Justinian the Great, was the Byzantine emperor from 527 to 565. His reign is marked by the ambitious but only partly realized ''renovat ...

, much like

Soko Grad Soko Grad ( sr-cyrl, Соко Град, link=no, ) may refer to: Serbia * Soko Grad (Sokobanja), near the spa town of Sokobanja, Serbia * Soko Grad (Ljubovija) Soko Grad ( sr, Соко Град) is a former town and medieval fortification near ...

Sokobanja Sokobanja ( sr-cyr, Сокобања, ) is a spa town and municipality located in the Zaječar District of the eastern Serbia. As of 2011, the population of the town is 7,982, while population of the municipality is 16,021. Geography Sokobanja ...

. It was first recorded in 1176 as a fort of

Stefan Nemanja Stefan Nemanja (Serbian Cyrillic: , ; – 13 February 1199) was the Grand Prince ( Veliki Župan) of the Serbian Grand Principality (also known as Raška, lat. ) from 1166 to 1196. A member of the Vukanović dynasty, Nemanja founded the Nemanji ...

. During the Ottoman occupation, the town became infamous for the notorious torture, persecution and conversion policy of the local orthodox population. There are documents from 1476 that mention that the administrator Sokol Kemal refortified and expanded the town's walls. For a long time, Sokol was a synonym for the Sultan's invincibility in the region; just like before, the fortress was never taken by an enemy army, getting the nickname ''Sultan's Bride''. It was one of the last bastions of the Turkish dominance in the region, and was one of the last fortifications in Serbia to remain in Ottoman possession. The Ottomans handed the fortified settlement and the surrounding area to Prince

Mihailo Obrenović Prince Mihailo Obrenović III of Serbia ( sr-Cyrl, Михаило Обреновић, Mihailo Obrenović; 16 September 1823 – 10 June 1868) was the ruling Principality of Serbia, Prince of Serbia from 1839 to 1842 and again from 1860 to 1868. ...

in accordance with the 1862

Kanlıca Kanlıca is a neighbourhood on the Asian side of the Bosphorus strait, in the Beykoz district of Istanbul Province, Turkey. It is known for a yogurt sprinkled with caster sugar, which is sold in local cafés, ibcluding thİsmailağa Kahvesiwhich h ...

Conference. The local muslim slavic population was forced to either convert or leave the country. Most of them ended up in villages not far away in the

Podrinje Podrinje (Serbian Cyrillic: Подриње) is the Slavic name of the Drina river basin, known in English as the Drina Valley. The Drina basin is shared between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia, with majority of its territory being located in ...

region of northeastern Bosnian eyalet, for example in

Kozluk Kozluk ( ku, Hezzo) is a district of Batman Province, Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in ...

. The arrangement required the Serbs to demolish Sokol and many other major fortresses (among them the fortress of Užice) that had come under their control. Captain Petar Radojlović mined it. The Soko monastery (dedicated to

St. Nicholas Saint Nicholas of Myra, ; la, Sanctus Nicolaus (traditionally 15 March 270 – 6 December 343), also known as Nicholas of Bari, was an early Christian bishop of Greek descent from the maritime city of Myra in Asia Minor (; modern-day Demre ...

) was built at the foot of the town in 1994. In 2000, a large 13,6 metre cross was put on the highest point of Soko Grad with a helicopter of the Army of

FR Yugoslavia Serbia and Montenegro ( sr, Cрбија и Црна Гора, translit=Srbija i Crna Gora) was a country in Southeast Europe located in the Balkans that existed from 1992 to 2006, following the breakup A relationship breakup, breakup, or ...

( SCG).

Characteristics

Sokol is built on tall and steep rock. The fortification system consists of the citadel - the upper town. The citadel itself consists of two fortified wholes. On the tallest ridge, there is an irregular shaped wall built partly around the rock, with two towers. One tower was protruded on the south side, and the other - main tower was facing the lower town (where the monastery is today). Under this tower, there is a remain of a water cistern. The entire side of the cliff under the main tower was walled by a 35–40 meters tall walls. In the lower part of the citadel there was one rectangle-based tower, which was the access point to the upper part of upper Soko. Under this gate tower, there were two more similar towers, facing the lower town. Inside the lower part of upper town, there are still visible traces of more fortification objects.

References

Populated places in Mačva District Forts in Serbia Ruins in Serbia {{Serbia-castle-stub