Vienna, the Habsburg capital, was besieged twice by Ottoman armies and was not taken either time. These two dates mark the limit of the Ottoman advance into Central Europe.

1529: Suleiman’s siege

Three years after the victory at Mohács, Suleiman the Magnificent arrived before Vienna in September 1529. An early autumn, heavy rain and heavy artillery left behind on muddy roads made the siege difficult. The army withdrew in mid-October.

1683: Kara Mustafa Pasha

Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa Pasha of Merzifon besieged the city again in July 1683. After two months, on 12 September 1683, a relief army under the Polish king John III Sobieski descended from the Kahlenberg and dealt the Ottomans a heavy defeat. Kara Mustafa Pasha was executed in Belgrade at the end of the same year.

The defeat is seen as the beginning of the Ottoman retreat from Europe. With the Treaty of Karlowitz in 1699, most of Hungary passed out of Ottoman hands.

What to see today

  • Kahlenberg: the hill from which the relief army descended in 1683, today one of Vienna’s finest viewpoints.
  • Türkenschanzpark: named after the entrenchments dug by Ottoman soldiers during the 1683 siege.
  • Museums: the Museum of Military History (Heeresgeschichtliches Museum) and the Wien Museum display Ottoman weapons, banners and objects from the siege.

The croissant is said to have been shaped like a crescent to celebrate the victory of 1683. Historians, however, regard this as a later legend.