Bajo Pivljanin

Bajo Nikolić Pivljanin (Бајо Николић Пивљанин; fl. 1669 – died May 1685) was a noted hajduk commander against the Ottoman Empire, serving the Republic of Venice. He participated in the Cretan War and numerous operations in the Bay of Kotor and other Slavic-inhabited Venetian territories, mostly in Montenegro, of which he is enumerated in Serb epic poetry.

Life
Bajo hailed from Piva clan of Herzegovina, today Old Herzegovina, part of Montenegro. His name is first mentioned in Venetian sources dating to 1669. He participated in the Cretan War (1645–1669), and was a hajduk commander (counter-Ottoman guerilla fighting, hajdučija, unsanctioned by the Venetians) in the Bay of Kotor, defending the region from the Ottoman Empire, which earned him praise from the Republic of Venice who awarded him with a title.

In the middle of 1671, he and 600 hajduks were transported from Risan to Pula, in Istria (modern Croatia). He is mentioned in the summer of 1675 as one of the leaders of the uskoks in Zadar. He returns to Kotor in 1684, and again begins the hajdučija. In 1685, the Pivans and Banjani came to be organized thanks to, and under the leadership of, Bajo. In Dražin Vrt, Kotor, exists a tower in which he and his bands allegedly stayed.

As an aid to the Montenegrins, the Kotoran provveditore Antonio Zeno sends a band of hajduks and Bokelji under the command of Bajo. Bajo clashed with Shendjer Pasha in Vrtijeljka, near Cetinje, in early May 1685, the Ottomans were victorious and Bajo fell at the battlefield. According to some legends Bajo Pivljanin and his wife are buried under one of two stećci in front of Vlah Church in Cetinje.

In folk tradition
Three sirdars brave and two voivodes bold, with three hundred falcon-heroes of theirs – falcon Bajo with his thirty dragons – they all will live as long as time endures. They lay in wait for Sendjer the Vizier on the top of Mount Vrtijeljka and fought till noon on a hot summer day. No Serb wanted to betray another, so that people would not blame him later and point at his descendants as they do at the traitor house of Brankovics. So they all fell, one beside the other, while still singing and striking at the Turks. Only three Serbs came forth from there alive, from under the piles of dead Turks' bodies – the Turks had run horses o'er the wounded. Beautiful death, glory to their mothers! Unto these brave men God will amply grant fame to their souls and incense on their graves. Three thousand youths, one brave as the other, struck suddenly at Sendjer the Vizier before daybreak on the Field of Krstac. God gives power to those who always strive! They broke the might of Sendjer the Vizier! Lucky the man who happened to be there! The Kosovo wounds pain him no longer, he blames the Turks for nothing any more. Serbian heroes of Mount Vrtijeljka! A shining light will always be seen there burning atop your consecrated tombs! — From the Mountain Wreath by Petar II Petrović-Njegoš.

Other epic poems include: SA ŠTA PIVLjANIN BAJO ODE U USKOKE, etc.

Legacy
There is an elementary school "Bajo Pivljanin", an agricultural company "Bajo Pivljanin-Poljoprivreda AD Pluzine (BAPO)", a futsal cup team "Bajo Pivljanin Pluzine", and numerous placenames in Montenegro.