So slowly we came to this black part of Sarajevo history , the year 1697, year when Prince Eugene of Savoy burned and robbed the city of Sarajevo. In 1697, during the
Great Turkish War, a raid was led by
Prince Eugene of Savoy of the
Habsburg Monarchy
against the Ottoman Empire, which conquered Sarajevo and left it
plague-infected and burned to the ground. After his men had looted
thoroughly, they set the city on fire and destroyed nearly all of it in
one day. Only a handful of neighborhoods, some mosques, and the Orthodox church, were left standing. Numerous other fires weakened the city, as well. The city was later
rebuilt, but never fully recovered from the destruction. By 1807, it had
only some 60,000 residents. The capital of Bosnia was moved to Travnik and it was some time before Sarajevo rose to become of significance again
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| Sarajevo through the eyes of Prince's Eugene soliders |
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| Prince Eugene of Savoy |
Prince Eugene of Savoy was one of the most successful military commanders in modern European history, rising to the highest offices of state at the Imperial court in Vienna. Born in Paris, Eugene grew up around the French court of King Louis XIV. Rejected by Louis XIV for service in the French army, Eugene moved to Austria and transferred his loyalty to the Habsburg Monarchy. He first saw action against the Ottoman Turks at the Siege of Vienna in 1683 and the subsequent War of the Holy League, before serving in the Nine Years' War. However, the Prince's fame was secured with his decisive victory against the Ottomans at the
Battle of Zenta in 1697, earning him European-wide fame. Eugene died in his sleep at his home on 21 April 1736, aged 72.
Eugen had achieved a stunning victory, and now set on a path to take
further profit from it. From Osijek he started an invasion of Bosnia on
13 October 1697 with 4,000 cavalry and 2,500 infantry (his journal of
this action has survived to this day). On 23 October he looked down at
the open city of Sarajevo. He sent in a delegation to summon the
surrender, but this was attacked. He then sent in his soldiers to
plunder, which led to a fire, and the whole city being burned down the
next day.
