Tvrđa — the Baroque Fortress

Tvrđa grew from the medieval fortress of the Drava crossing, captured from the Ottomans in 1687. The new Habsburg fortress was designed in the 1710s and 1720s by the military architects of Emperor Charles VI as a star fort of the Sava-Drava defence line against the Ottomans; the baroque squares, the Franciscan church and the arcaded officers’ buildings rose inside its ramparts through the 18th century. After the fortress lost its military role, the quarter declined; its careful restoration since the 1980s made Tvrđa the cultural showpiece of Slavonia.