#szigetvar

The Siege of Szigetvár (Hungarian: Szigetvári csata, Croatian: Bitka kod Sigeta) was a siege of the Szigeth Fortress in Baranya (near the present Hungarian/Croatian border) which blocked Suleiman's line of advance towards Vienna in 1566 AD. The battle was fought between the defending forces of the Austrian Habsburg Monarchy under the leadership of Croatian ban Nikola Šubić Zrinski, and the invading Ottoman army under the nominal command of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent.

In January 1566 Suleiman went to war for the last time. The siege of Szigetvár was fought from 5 August to 8 September 1566 and, though it resulted in an Ottoman victory, there were heavy losses on both sides. Both commanders died during the battle—Zrinsky in the final charge and Suleiman in his tent from natural causes. More than 20,000 Turks had fallen during the attacks and almost all of Zrinsky's 2,300 man garrison was killed, with most of the final 600 men killed on the last day. Although the battle was an Ottoman victory, it stopped the Ottoman push to Vienna that year. Vienna was not threatened again until the Battle of Vienna in 1683.