| Siege of Gvozdansko | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Hundred Years' Croatian-Ottoman War | |||||||||
 Gvozdansko Castle on a 1729 painting | |||||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
 Ottoman Empire | |||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
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Damjan Doktorović † Juraj Gvozdanović † Nikola Ožegović † Andrija Stepšić † | Ferhad Pasha Sokolović | ||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
| 300 soldiers and miners | 5,000–10,000 soldiers | ||||||||
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The siege of Gvozdansko (Croatian: Opsada Gvozdanskog) was an Ottoman siege of the fort of Gvozdansko in the Kingdom of Croatia in 1577–1578. In the 1570s, the Ottomans intensified their efforts to capture the valley of the Una River. A string of forts along the Una, centred around Gvozdansko and in possession of the Zrinski noble family, formed the main line of defense of Croatia since 1527. The fort held off Ottoman attacks in 1540 and 1561.
In 1575, Ferhad Bey Sokolović, Sanjak-bey of Bosnia, began an offensive on central Croatia. By the end of 1576, the defense system on the Una collapsed and most of the forts in the valley were captured, including Bužim and Cazin. While Gvozdansko withheld an attack in June after three days of fighting, the attack left the walls of the fort damaged. Ferhad Bey renewed the campaign in September 1577 and attacked the remaining Croatian-held forts in the area. The Ottoman army besieged Gvozdansko on 3 October, whose garrison numbered 300 soldiers and miners, under the command of Damjan Doktorović and three other Croatian captains. With the capture of the nearby fort of Zrin on 20 December, Gvozdansko was left completely isolated. Due to a lack of troops, there were no attempts to relieve Gvozdansko.
The final phase of the siege began in early January 1578. Around 5,000 Ottoman troops were involved in the siege, and a similar number were positioned at the approaches to Gvozdansko. Calls for the surrender of the fort were rejected. Three major Ottoman assaults were repelled from 10 to 12 January. By the final day of the siege, on 13 January, the entire Croatian garrison was dead and Ottoman forces entered the fort in the early morning. Gvozdansko and most of the Una Valley were briefly recaptured by Croatian and other Habsburg forces during a counter-offensive in the summer of 1578. Their gains were annulled by Ferhad Bey in late September. The Ottoman Empire controlled Gvozdansko until 1685. Ottomans recaptured it in 1690. But, it was definitely captured by Austrians in 1718.