The 1716 Battle of Petrovaradin

Soon after the Great Viennese War which had come to an end through the treaties signed at Karlowitz in 1799, a new Austro-Turkish war broke out on May 21, 1716. It was initiated by no one else but the Pope, and included participation of the Habsburg Monarchy and the Republic of Venice. The war lasted for two years, until 1718, and inflicted worst suffering on the Serb population living along the border on either sides of the Sava and the Danube. In addition to human loss, material damage was enormous.
The Commander of Slavonia, imperial cavalry general Baron Maximilian Petarsch, proved to be a poor military leader indeed. From the eastern Syrmia, the Turks penetrated westward. At the town of Irig, great loss was suffered by the Serb troops under the command of Adam Monasterlija who was killed too. The Turks set fire to Irig, Karlowitz, as well as the monasteries of Staro Hopovo, Novo Hopovo and Krušedol.
The situation took a quite different course when Prince Eugene of Savoy was appointed the Commander-in-Chief of the Christian troops; he was the renowned victor of the Battle of Szenta. It was at Vezirac ['Vizier's Hill'], the hilltop plateau between Petrovaradin, Karlowitz/Karlovci and Budisava that the Turks were routed on August 5, 1716. As soon as on October 13 of the same year, this military leader took hold of Timisoara, the most important fortress of the Banat, then the whole of the Banat region.
In the next year, 1717, violent battles were waged across the north of Serbia, and Belgrade was seized on August 22, 1717. The war was terminated through the Treaty of Passarowitz/Požarevac, signed on July 21, 1718, whereby the Habsburg Monarchy gained the whole of Syrmia, the Banat and northern Serbia,
The population in these areas suffered heavily. Forced or slave labour was imposed by both the Turks and the Austrians in Belgrade, Šabac, Kupinovo, Petrovaradin and elsewhere. A great many people were killed or taken to slavery, which has been testified by numerous travelogue writers and other sources. The south of Bačka and the Banat were afflicted heavily.
The Commander-in-Chief of the Turkish army, Damad Ali-Pasha, was killed in the Battle of Petrovaradin, or – according to some sources - lethally wounded, to die at Karlowitz. The raging Turks burned down, almost to the earth, the very town of Karlovci, the monasteries of Velika Remeta and Krušedol, the latter being the foundation of the Serbian despots of the Branković family – their bodies were taken out of the reliquaries, cut into pieces and burnt; the fire also devoured the monastic buildings and the surroundings.
Tradition – cherished by the people and the Church – has it that on the very day of the Petrovaradin Battle dense snow began to fall, which caused panic among the Turks and paved way to the victory of the Christian army. The victors took massive loot to Vienna, and it is still kept at the Kriegsmuseum [War Museum] there (the tent of the Grand Vizier, banners, weaponry etc.). Metal objects related to the battle still occasionally emerge in the area. On a prominent site, a cruciform monument has been erected in memory of the victory at Vezirac Hill.
Several years after the battle, a cultus was born worshiping Virgin Mary of the Snowfall as the patroness of the Christian troops. The name extension refers to the legendary snowfall mentioned above.
After some time, a church was erected there, one dedicated to Mary of the Snowfall (Mariaschnee), built in Neo-Gothic style and with a Byzantine dome above the altar, in recognition of the Orthodox participants in the battle, especially the Serbian crews of gunboats and infantry. On top of the dome there is a cross with a crescent beneath: this symbolizes Christian victory over Islam. Similar signs can be seen on some churches in Russia, too. The church building thus carried some implication of oecumenical spirit, especially in mid-19th century when Josip Juraj Strossmayer held the cathedra of the Djakovo Bishopric and in the time when Ilija Okrugić Sremac, author and – as a native of Karlovci – schoolmate of the great Serbian poet Branko Radičević, was the chaplain and the parish priest in that church. The church is widely referred to as the Tekije Church [...]
Pavle Štraser