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| Siege of Temesvár | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of theHabsburg–Ottoman war of 1551–1562 | |||||||
 The siege in an Ottoman miniature | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 Ottoman Empire |  Hungarian, Czech, German and Spanish defenders | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Ahmed Pasha Sokollu Mustafabeylerbey ofRumelia | István Losonci  | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 30,000 | 1,900 | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| Unknown | Heavy | ||||||
Thesiege of Temesvár was a military conflict between theHabsburg monarchy and theOttoman Empire in 1552. The siege resulted with a decisive Ottoman victory and Temesvár came under Ottoman control for 164 years.
After theBattle of Mohács in 1526, the Hungarian Kingdom split into two parts. The western part of the country came under the control ofFerdinand I from theHouse of Habsburg, the eastern side came under the control ofJohn Zápolya, a Hungarian noble. Zápolya asked the help ofSuleiman the Magnificent Ottoman emperor against Ferdinand. After the death of John in 1540, he was succeeded by his one-month-old son,John Sigismund Zápolya. Ferdinand in 1541 tried to captureBuda, the capital, but he was defeated by Suleiman's army. The Ottoman emperor occupied Buda after the victory and sent the young Hungarian king with his court toLippa (todayLipova, Romania); in 1542 they moved toGyulafehérvár (todayAlba Iulia, Romania), which later became the capital of thePrincipality of Transylvania.
Even after this event, Ferdinand didn't give up his dream about the unification of the Hungarian Kingdom under his rule. WithGeorge Martinuzzi's help, the eastern part of the country in 1550 came under Habsburg rule, which caused the attack of the Ottoman army against Hungary.
In 1552 two Ottoman armies crossed the border into the Hungarian Kingdom. One of them – led byHadim Ali Pasha – started a campaign against the western and central part of the country whilst the second army – led byKara Ahmed Pasha – attacked the fortresses in theBanat region.
In the summer of 1552, the Ottomans arrived atTemesvár, which was the most important city in the Banat region. The Ottoman army numbered about 30,000 men, Temesvár was defended only by 1,900 men, 700 of whom were merchants.
The Ottoman artillery started destroying the wall on 27 June, then the Ottoman infantry assaulted the wall on 3 July and 6 July, without any success. At the time of the battle, a Hungarian army led by Mihály Tóth tried to liberate the city under the siege, but his army was defeated in the battle of Szentandrás (todaySânandrei, Romania). The city fell soon after.
After the capture of Temesvár, the sultan established theTemeşvar Eyalet which was composed of foursanjaks. Temesvár remained under Ottoman control even after theTreaty of Karlowitz and was recaptured by the Christian forces only in 1717.