Bač Fortress

Bač Fortress (Serbian: Бачка тврђава / Bačka tvrđava) is the medieval fortress in Serbia, Vojvodina. It is located in the town of Bač.

Background
Medieval fortress in Bač is known as one of the great fortress of its time in Pannonian plain. It was built by the town of the same name to the west, on a small island on the river Mostonga. The Fortress in Bač is known as one of the so-called "Water Towns", because it used to be surrounded by the Mostonga river on all sides, approachable only by the drawbridges. The fortress has a pentagonal basis on which corners are projecting towers. Inside the fort there is another, superior, central (or dungeon defender) tower. The tower has served as an important part of the defense system of the fortress, but also as an observation post.

Earliest Times
According to some chronicles, Bač was also an Avar fortress (873). It was inhabited by both, Avars and Slavs. The Hungarian King Stephen I founded the Bač County, and at the turn of the first millennium Bač 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, 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 Bačka county there were governors appointed by the king. Until the Mongol invasion in 1241, the governors 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.

Remodeled
At the beginning of the fourteenth century a dynasty change occurs in the Kingdom of Hungary. The Hungarian King Charles Robert I (1310–1342) founds the new town (fortress) on Mostonga between the 1338 and 1342, with the quadrangular tower with six floors, important for the defense of the city. There primarily existed eight towers, various chambers of the county manager, a chapel, guard towers, kitchen, well, barn, and various other premises, the remains of which stand today.

Ottomans
In the aftermath of the Battle of Mohács from 1526, the city and fort became an Ottoman possession. Dating from this period are also the descriptions of Bač Fortress by Evliya Çelebi, when Bač became a part of the Ottoman Sanjak of Segedin. According to the traveler description, the city was surrounded by a wide circle of trenches filled with water. Surrounding the city was also a developing civilian settlement, which could be entered through the fortress drawbridge gate, named "The Spike".

Last Years
In the time of Rákóczi Rebellion (1703–1711) the fortress was burned, destroyed and abandoned. However, Bač fort still remains the best preserved medieval fortress in Vojvodina. The ruins of the fortress in its present state, consist of a base in the form of an irregular pentagon, four lateral, and one central tower 18 meters high, which is partially reconstructed. In its history the fort underwent various renovation and demolition, and the remains still present a challenge for scientists and tourists alike.