The fortress was built following the increasingly threatening and devastating
Ottoman 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. The
master builder (
director muratorum) was Petar /Pietro/ de Mediolanus from
Milan and the overall construction costs were estimated at more than 3,300
florins (
forints). Having become
Bosnian pasha in 1591,
Hasan 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-
Austro-
Hungarian 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. ==Gallery==