Mighty Danube castle - water town in Vojvodina plain: 7 centuries of the Bac beauty

Photo: Ivan Strahinic

During the time of the Hungarian king Karl Robert, in the area of present-day Backa, one of the tourist potentials of Serbia, the Bac fortress, was built surrounded on all sides by a river.

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It belonged to the so-called water towns - it could only be reached by a drawbridge. It was located on a former island between the Mostonga River and one of its tributaries. Although it is not directly positioned along the Danube, it was considered a Danube castle, because it is located in the basin of this river.

The Hungarian king built the Bac fortress in order to counter the pressure from the Serbian empire on the Hungarian border. At that time, the fortress had eight towers, with the keep tower, the chambers of the district governor, a kitchen, a well, the guards' chambers... Although construction started in 1338, the Bac fortress gained its final appearance in the 15th century.

The Ottoman traveler Evliya Celebi left valuable information about Bac and the castle that dominated the Backa plain:

"It is a beautiful fortress on a lake that receives water from the Danube, it is of quadrangular shape, and was built using bricks... In this town there is another large tower which faces the lake. On it is a beautiful resort like an emperor's. It is a castle as beautiful as Havranek, where all enlightened and sincere friends from the city meet to rest and divert themselves."

The Bac fortress was burned down, destroyed and abandoned at the beginning of the 18th century, while the water that surrounded it dried up, and the former magnificent building was visited by treasure hunters, believing that they would find gold coins among the walls and manage to get rich overnight.

A few years after the end of the Second World War, the Bac Fortress received the status of a cultural monument.

The five-storey keep tower has been renovated, the building within the fortress has been reconstructed, and the famous Bac beauty, together with its surroundings, has been declared a spatial cultural-historical whole of exceptional importance.

Photo: Ivan Strahinic

(Telegraf.rs)