VRŠAC FORTRESS – CASTLE IN THE LIGHT OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL DATA

Abstract

At the turn of the twentieth century the castle on a hill above Vršac became an object of increased pro¬fessional and public interest, so that minor repair works were done even before any preliminary ex¬plorations were made. The first exploratory pits were sunk in 1952 and new units were opened in 1983. A project for the systematic archaeological excava¬tions was made in 1996, and the actual work began in 1997 and lasted until 2001. The Vršac castle was built east of the town. The defence walls enclose a rather small plateau measuring 58 by 21 meters. During the excavations two strata of building debris were found. This fully matches the historical evidence, which shows that the forti¬fication underwent major destruction on two occasions. The uncovered parts included the defense walls, a semicir¬cular tower in the west part of the plateau, a partition wall dividing the interior of the castle into a west and an east courtyard, the palace, a cistern, a build¬ing made of timber, and bread baking ovens. Ac¬cording to its use, the manner of building and the orga¬nization of its interior space this hilltop edifice may be classed as a castle. It has points of similarity with some examples of military architecture in the Serbian lands south of the Danube, particularly with the castles of the Belgrade and Smederevo fortresses, and with Maglič.

The historical and archaeological data show that the Vršac castle was built in the early decades of the fifteenth century, i.e. before 1439. This is supported by the fact that af¬ter the first siege of Smederevo in 1439 Despot Đurađ Branković withdrew to southern Hungary, where he had castles at Bokšan and Vršac. The available evidence shows that the Vršac castle was built in two phases sepa¬rated by a brief interval. The east part with the keep was built in the first phase. This area was defended by strong walls and contained a palace and a cistern near the keep. The west part with the semicircular tower was built in the second phase, when the Vršac castle got its final appearance.

Whether the castle had al¬ready existed at the time when Despot Đurađ Branković was given a part of the Krašovo County with Érd-Šomljoin southern Hungary or was built by him, can be decid¬ed only by future historical research. The archaeological evidence enables us only to conclude that the hilltop castle at Vršac was built in the first half of the fifteenth century, although some historical evidences give us some earlier data, i.e. the fourteenth century. The castle was first damaged in 1456, and it fell under the Turkish rule at the same time as the Banat region, i.e. in 1552. The Turkish garrison used the keep as an observation post until the first decades on the seventeenth century. By 1626, however, the Vršac castle had already lost its importance as a strategic stronghold, and after that we find it mentioned only as an aban¬doned ruin on the hill.