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Sisak Fortress was built following the increasingly threatening and devastating Turkish attacks on the Kingdom of Croatia. The construction works were ordered by the Bishop of Zagreb, the owner of the estate, and lasted from 1544 until 1550.
Having become Bosnian pasha in 1591, Hasan Pasha Predojević launched a few attacks on Sisak. During his last campaign in June 1593, his army of around 12.000 Ottoman soldiers suffered on 22 June 1593 a heavy defeat against the defending joint Croato-Slovene-Austrian forces and he himself lost his life. This battle was a turning point, which meant interruption of further Ottoman conquest.
After slackening of Ottoman pressure on Croatian lands in the 17th century, the fortress changed its owners for a couple of times, being sometimes damaged, but immediately repaired. The last major damage occurred during the Second World War, as the fortification was hit by shells and the northwest tower was partially destroyed.
Present-day fortress houses some collections of the Sisak Town Museum (established in 1951), which include holdings of archaeology, ethnology, cultural history and numismatics.
Sisak Fortress is a triangle-shaped structure, mostly made of brick and supported by stone parts. Each corner of the fortress is reinforced with a round tower covered by conical roof. Towers are connected by the more than 30 metres long thick walls with loopholes. Being on the river bank, the fortress has a natural line of defense from the west-southwest, while the other sides are partially protected by the Sava River in the immediate vicinity, flowing southeast.
References:Visby Cathedral (also known as St. Mary’s Church) is the only survived medieval church in Visby. It was originally built for German merchants and inaugurated in 1225. Around the year 1350 the church was enlarged and converted into a basilica. The two-storey magazine was also added then above the nave as a warehouse for merchants.
Following the Reformation, the church was transformed into a parish church for the town of Visby. All other churches were abandoned. Shortly after the Reformation, in 1572, Gotland was made into its own Diocese, and the church designated its cathedral.
There is not much left of the original interior. The font is made of local red marble in the 13th century. The pulpit was made in Lübeck in 1684. There are 400 graves under the church floor.