Hodidjed
Ruined medieval fort, the only known fortification of Vrhbosna župa.
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Where it is
Coordinates: 43°51′32″N 18°29′28″E (43.8590, 18.4910) · Open in OpenStreetMap
Coordinates and connected clubs: the infobox of Wikipedia: Hodidjed (CC BY-SA 4.0). Map: drawn by Codexery from OpenStreetMap tiles.
The medieval fort of Hodidjed, now in ruins, stands in Bulozi within Republika Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina. It was the sole known stronghold in the Vrhbosna župa region during the High Middle Ages. In the early 1400s, the fort saw multiple changes of control: the Ottoman Empire seized it between 1428 and 1430, Matko Talovac recaptured it in 1434, and Barak Isaković took it again in 1435.
History
Hodidjed appears in the historical record for the first time in 1428, right after the Ottomans took it over. For a short while, the Croatian Ban Matko Talovac managed to win it back, but by 1435 Isa Bey Isaković had captured it, returning it to Ottoman control. A 1455 Ottoman document notes that Hodidjed had a dizdar, or gatekeeper, and a garrison of 23 soldiers. Nearby was a settlement called Bulagaj, listed as a village.
It is thought that this village was destroyed by a fire set by King Tomaš in 1459, after he failed to retake Hodidjed. By 1550, the garrison had grown to 50 soldiers. These troops remained stationed there until some point between 1811 and 1833, when they moved to Bijela Tabija above Sarajevo.
A 1565 document records that 26.3 kilograms of silver were buried at Hodidjed. The fort is believed to have also served as a mint for coins and as a dungeon. There is some evidence that Hodidjed stood on the same spot as today’s Bijela Tabija, though other sources place it at the village of Buloz. If the first theory is correct, Bijela Tabija was constructed on Hodidjed’s foundations in the early 1700s, when Sarajevo’s existing defenses were being strengthened after Prince Eugene of Savoy’s attack.
More in Castles in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Hodidjed (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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