Issue: 1/2019
THE MILITARIZATION OF BANJALUKA (1527–1789)
Authors:
Bratislav Teinović
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This article chronicles the armament of military units stationed on the Kastel Fortress since the first mention of gun makers in the beginning of the sixteenth century, through the construction of the first cannon foundry in 1587, to the construction of the “Vauban” artillery system and the Battle of Banja Luka in 1737. For Banja Luka, the city which was the most protruding center during the Ottoman conquest for a period of time, it can be safely said that during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries it possessed ample and diverse military material within its fortification. The numerous units in fortified cities anabled a great concentration of military material. The first militarization of the fortification and city begun with the construction of the cannon foundry in 1587. Banja Luka was one of the greatest producers of cannon balls since the second half of the seventeenth century. The raw materials for the production of iron military materials came from the mines of Bronzani Majdan, in the Banja Luka Nahiyah. The significance of this place to the state was reflected in the fact that in 1652. the imperial Emin Ali‐aga, lived there as an emissary. For Belgrade, in May 1679. a huge amount of gunpowder and lead was sent from the Banja Luka cannon factory. During Eugene of Savoy’s invasion of Bosnia in 1697. Banja Luka was already well known as the “Ottomans old manufacture of iron ammunition.” The final construction of the Kastel Fortress was finished in 1701, when the new governor of Banja Luka built a new cannon factory. All military industry for the production of cannons and gunpowder worked hydraulically during the eighteenth century. Exhausted in the wars with the Austrians, especially after their 1737 invasion, Banja Luka was a significantly weakened military power at the end of the eighteenth century. Sources from 1789 reveal the poor armament of the fortification, clearly indicating the waning of its power.
