Sack of Sarajevo

The sack of Sarajevo took place on 23 October 1697 and was committed by raiding Austrian troops led by Prince Eugene of Savoy. At this time the Great Turkish War was being fought. Shortly after the Austrian victory at the Battle of Zenta (today: Senta, Serbia), an opportunity arose for the Austrians to launch a surprise attack into Ottoman Bosnia.

The intrusion into Ottoman Bosnia and the subsequent sacking of Sarajevo left the city plague-infected and burned to the ground. After Prince Eugene's men had thoroughly looted the city, they set it on fire and nearly destroyed all of it in one day. Only a few neighbourhoods, some mosques, and an Orthodox church were left standing.

After a few years of peace between the Ottoman Empire and various Western powers, another attack was launched against the Habsburg monarchy by the Ottomans, almost capturing Vienna. However, the Polish king John III Sobieski, along with his Christian alliance won the Battle of Vienna (1683), forever stalling Ottoman expansion into Europe. After the capture of Buda by the Christian forces in 1686, many Serbs from the Pannonian Plain decided to join the troops of the Habsburg monarchy. On the 11th of September in modern-day Vojvodina, the Battle of Zenta was fought. The battle was the most decisive engagement of the Great Turkish War: it saw the Ottomans suffer an overwhelming defeat by an imperial force half as large sent by Emperor Leopold I. The Turks attempted to cross the river Tisza at Zenta. Their force was personally led by the sultan Mustafa II. In a surprise attack, Habsburg Imperial forces commanded by Prince Eugene of Savoy engaged the Turkish army while it was crossing the Tisza river. Prince Eugene's forces inflicted thousands of casualties, including the Grand Vizier Elmas Mehmed Pasha. Prince Eugene's army dispersed the Ottoman forces, capturing the Ottoman treasury, and came away with such emblems of high Ottoman authority as the Seal of the Empire which had never been captured before. Prince Eugene's forces, unlike the Turks, had exceptionally light casualties.

Austria gained complete control over Banat. Because the Ottoman army was scattered, the Austrians had complete freedom of action in Slavonia and Ottoman Bosnia for almost 6 weeks, just as Prince Eugene was planning to raid Ottoman Bosnia.

On 6 October, Prince Eugene left Osijek in Slavonia with 6,500 warriors (4000 spearmen, 2500 infantry with rifles, 12 small cannons and, two mortars). After crossing the river Sava to get into Bosnia, the small town of Brod was plundered, this marked the beginning of his intrusion into Bosnia. Upon his arrival in Bosnia, Prince Eugene and his army followed the river Bosna downwards until they reached Sarajevo. On their way to Sarajevo they encountered the Doboj Fortress. They sent an ultimatum to the people there, but they refused to surrender. After artillery shelling of the fortress, it finally fell on 16 October. After the victory at Doboj, Prince Eugene's army marched to the town of Maglaj where they encountered less resistance and captured it quickly. After the capture of Maglaj, Prince Eugene's army marched on to Žepče. Even though there was resistance at Žepče, local desertion became the reason for it falling as fast as Maglaj. Heavy resistance was encountered at Zenica and Vranduk. The Vranduk Fortress was ultimately bypassed since it proved extremely hard to conquer. The weaker arms and smaller size of the resistance forces in Zenica let Prince Eugen conquer it on 20 October. In the end, it took Prince Eugene and the Austrians 11 days to get to the medieval town of Visoko. Upon their arrival they decided to loot and set the town on fire, completely destroying it.

The army was on the outskirts of Sarajevo the same day and the next day on the 22nd of October. Prince Eugene sent a bugler and flag-bearer to Sarajevo, with a request to surrender the city and avoid casualties. The letter he sent to the Sarajevo authorities stated:

The letter that Prince Eugen sent wasn't replied to. Instead, both the bugler and flag bearer were attacked and robbed while their letter was read aloud in town. As Prince Eugen found out about this, he ordered an attack on the city. The Prince Eugene's attack and subsequent burning of Sarajevo is documented in his diary:

By the 25th Prince Eugene and his forces had decided to retreat and return to the lands of the Habsburg Monarchy. The Austrians plundered even more on their way back home, near Maglaj, a detachment of the army deviated from the main route and separated in the direction of Tešanj, bombarding the town there and then rejoining the army near Doboj. Prince Eugene's diary ends with a description of the return of the units via Osijek, through forests and swampy areas to the winter camps in Slavonia, where the bulk Prince Eugene's army was already stationed. Upon arrival home they were awaited as heroes because of their victory at the Battle of Zenta.

The attack forever erased the most beautiful architecture in the city; the center of the town was completely destroyed. Almost all of the inns and workshops were lost. The Sarajevo Bezistan and Gazi Husrev Begs complex were severely damaged by the fire as well. Most mosques were also destroyed by the fires and almost all the imams and muezzins died as well. An unknown Sarajevan poet wrote about the force and cruelty with which the Habsburg forces destroyed the town.

For reference, the city of Sarajevo had 80,000 inhabitants in the 1660s. According to some writers, the city had only 30,000 inhabitants in the early 19th century, mostly those living on the outskirts of what once was the city. The inhabitants of Sarajevo had to rebuild the city not just structurally, but culturally and politically as well. By then, the seat of the Bosnian government had already been transferred to Travnik, meaning that Sarajevo lost its status as the main city of Bosnia. Prince Eugene's sacking of Sarajevo ruined it to the point that it took almost 200 years to recover.