Orbán

Orbán, also called Urban (died 1453), was an iron founder and engineer from Brassó in Transylvania. In 1452 he offered his services to Emperor Constantine XI, who could neither pay him nor supply metal for a giant gun, so Orbán turned to Sultan Mehmed II.

He claimed his weapon could destroy even the walls of Babylon, and the sultan supplied funds and materials. At Adrianople he cast the colossal Basilic bombard in three months; sixty oxen dragged it to the 1453 siege of Constantinople, where his guns battered the Theodosian Walls. He is said to have been killed that year when one of his own cannons burst.