According to our guide, the fortress is itself its own city and was built in the 1600-1700’s and was never breached but was built to repel huge armies if necessary. The outer walls are star shaped and encompass hundreds of buildings that were used to house the armies and their families, and included a small city with all the services needed for the soldiers. The inner walls and buildings were the defensive parts of the fortress but the most unique aspect was the 60 km of tunnels under the fort!
The tunnels were designed to hold thousands of soldiers with traps, canons and other ways of stopping the enemies from getting inside the fortress. Gun holes that were 2 meters long lined many of the tunnels as well as canon portals. All the walls and ceilings were made with brick and mortar, enough to build 100 homes. People who have gotten past the many gates have been know to get lost in the maze of tunnels. One tunnel was even built to be used by a train that crossed the river. Of course that bridge was bombed so the train tunnel was never used as such.
The buildings at the top of the hill are now a hotel, cafe, shops, etc. where once they were stables and barracks. The clock tower is referred to as the Drunk Clock for two reasons. One, it does not keep accurate time and two, the long hand is the hour and the short hand is the minutes.
Dry moats between each level of walls are used today as a concert venue for 15 stages of musicians or DJ’s during the “Exit Festival”.
Two interesting things - Monica Seles is from here as is Albert Einstein’s wife.
No comments:
Post a Comment