Osijek

Osijek stands on the Drava in the fertile Slavonian plain, near the river's meeting with the Danube. Its crossing made it an important town on the route between the Balkans and Hungary. The best-known crossing was a great wooden bridge and causeway through the wetlands towards Darda, built for Sultan Süleyman's army in 1566 and celebrated far beyond the region.

The Ottomans took Osijek in 1526, and the town grew into a commercial and strategic centre of their Slavonian possessions. Süleyman's bridge extended for roughly eight kilometres across the river and marshes, carrying the roads northwards. It was destroyed during the wars of the late seventeenth century; Ottoman forces abandoned Osijek in 1687. Under Habsburg rule the town became a military and administrative centre. A new fortress, the Tvrđa, rose largely between 1712 and 1722, replacing the older Ottoman defences.