Friday, August 31, 2018

The End of Dog Days - 335 years ago


Ottoman map of the siege of Vienna 1683
Salvete Omnes,
and here we have the last days of summer vacation before the kids go back to school after the Labor day weekend.
in less than 14 days we will celebrate the 335th anniversary of the battle of Vienna 1683.

I hope that for the 337-40th anniversary Polish film makers will come up with a decent and long memorable  feature film to entertain and at the same time to commemorate this important event in the Central European history. It could be a better monument to king Jan III Sobieski and his troops than the latest sculpture by mr. Dzwigaj.
 The paintings of the XVIII century painter August Querfurt may aptly illustrate the small war that was going on around the besieged Austrian provinces, while the main Ottoman army set up a city of tents and continued besieging the Imperial capital.



back then during the hot dog days of the summer the Tatar and Turkish riders were combing the Austrian countryside for the slaves to capture  and plunder to be had. The Austrians said that more than 50 thousand peoples lsot their lives or were captured during the summer invasion.


Polish army was still marching on towards the Imperial City of Vienna and the Saxon and Bavarian et al., allies of the Hamburgs were marching to join the Imperial army under Charles of Lorraine.
The Viennese defenders were suffering under the duress of the Ottoman guns and constant attacks by the Ottoman soldiers and miners. Summer dog days brought nothing but war, hunger and deprivations to the Austrian capital.
 The winged hussars and pancerni cavalry marching with the rest of the Polish army were still almost two weeks away from the slopes of Kahlenberg.
But the protestant Hungarian subjects of the Imperial Austria were rather supporting the Ottomans in this struggle, and their leader Imre Thokoly conducted his own war against the Imperial troops in upper Hungary.
Also other Ottoman vassals came to the huge camp at the plains of Vienna to show support to this latest Ottoman display of might and military exellence.


 They were all looking forward to see Kara Mustafa and his powerful army at the Austrian capital's gates taking the Imperial city.
...
Valete !

No comments:

Post a Comment