Bač Fortress

Bač Fortress (Serbian: Бачка тврђава, romanized: Bačka tvrđava; Hungarian: Bácsi vár) is a medieval fortress in Vojvodina, Serbia. It is located in the town of Bač, in the Bačka region.

Founded by the king Charles Robert I, the fortress was the most important Hungarian rampart against the invading Ottoman forces and today is the best preserved medieval fort in Vojvodina.

According to chronicles, the Avar fortress, which existed in 873 in Bač, predated the later fort. It was inhabited by both Avars and Slavs. The Hungarian King Stephen I founded Bács County, and at the turn of the first millennium Bač (Hungarian: Bács) was already a well built and fortified town, connected to the Danube by the river Mostonga. During the Árpád dynasty, Bač became not only the ecclesiastical seat of the Archdiocese of Kalocsa, but a royal city, where nobles and rulers came to their councils and assemblies. In the twelfth century Bač fortress is first mentioned in written sources.

At the head of Bács county there were ispáns appointed by the king. Until the Mongol invasion in 1241, the ispáns were the managers of the area. They collected donations, set up military and civilian commanders. In addition to the governors of the fort there were also lower prefects, judges, and military personnel. Since the twelfth century, the custom of annual royal visits to the fort was established.

At the beginning of the fourteenth century a dynasty change occurred in the Kingdom of Hungary. and the town prospered during the rule of king Charles Robert I, who started building the modern fortress in 1338–42. The new town (fortress) on Mostonga had the quadrangular tower with six floors, important for the defense of the city. Originally there were 8 towers, various chambers of the county manager, a chapel, guard towers, kitchen, water well, barn, and various other premises, the remains of which stand today.

The fort and the town developed as Bač was the major crossroad at the time. Roads from and to Europe, the Balkans and the Mediterranean all crossed here, and the tall central tower allowed the overseeing and control of the lowlands and both the river and the land traffic.

Text adapted from “Bač Fortress” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Bač Fortress ranks #2,063 of 7,738 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #10 of the 26 mapped in Serbia. Founded 1338, it is older than 60% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 582 atlas entries founded in the 14th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 1,362 times in the last 60 days, more than 56% of the atlas. 2 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Novi Sad, 50 km away. See how Serbia compares in the castle statistics.

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