Part 13 - Imotski fort 🏰 Topana, part 2/2, Mrkonjić, Tvrđava, Gospin dolac, nogometni stadion, NK
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Located on a gorge above Blue Lake, about half a kilometer northwest of the present-day center of Imotski, the Topana fortress is one of the most significant medieval fortifications in the inner part of Dalmatia. Around the fort built in XIII. and XIV. century, the settlement and town gradually developed. The fortress got its name from a special tower with a platform for cannons, in military terminology known as topana (Turkish tophana means foundry and/or cannon storage), which was built in the northeastern part of the fortress during the Candian War around 1663.
The first mention of the medieval parish of Imota was recorded in the writings of the Byzantine emperor Constantine VII. Porphyrogeneta in the middle of the 10th century. The parish of Imota was a border territory between the medieval Croatian state and the Principality of Hum, and later the Croatian-Hungarian Kingdom and the Bosnian Kingdom. When analyzing De administrando imperio, Mladen Ančić points to the fact that in that historically valuable document it is stated that the Neretvans have two counties on the coast and one in the hinterland, and concludes that the territory of Neretvan should therefore extend deep into the hinterland of that part of the Dalmatian coast. This means that, according to the unknown author of the passage about Dalmatia in De administrando imperio, the territory of the medieval Croatian parish of Imota (for a while) fell under the rule of the Neretvans. Ančić concludes that the Neretvan territory is actually the Principality of Hum.
Medieval sources refer to the Imotski fortress as locus (place), oppidum (town), castelum (castle), castrum (town). Imotski is mentioned in the charters of the Croatian-Hungarian kings, and later it was under the rule of the Bosnian rulers. After XII. century it was part of the Principality of Hum. In 1210, the Croatian-Hungarian king Andrija appointed Domald, Duke of Split, as lord of Imotski. After the extinction of the Duchy of Hum at the beginning of XIV. century, Imotski is managed by the Nelipčići and Mladen I. Šubić, brother of Ban Pavle Šubić. In the second decade of XIV. century, it was conquered by the Bosnian ban Stjepan II. Kotromanić. With the 1378 agreement between the Bosnian ban-king Tvrtko I and the Croatian-Hungarian king Ludovic I of Anjou from 1378, the property area once again came under the rule of the Croatian-Hungarian Kingdom. After that, many Bosnian nobles took over Imotski: Vukčići, Vlatkovići, Jurjevići. At the beginning of 1400, the Imot fortress belongs to Hrvoj Vukčić Hrvatinić, who stays there occasionally. In the XV. century, Imotski was in the hands of the Bosnian nobles Kosač, who, together with some other properties, handed it over to the Republic of Venice in 1463 for defense against the Ottomans.
Through the last three decades of the XV. century, the Imot area was gradually occupied and conquered by the Ottomans, but the exact year of the fall of the Imot fortress, which lasted a little longer than the surrounding area, has not yet been established by historiography. According to some historians, Imotski fell, even was abandoned, immediately after the Battle of Krbav in 1493, while others believe that it happened a little later, in the first decades of the 16th century. It is indicative and interesting that the Imotski fortress is not mentioned in the first defter (cadastre, population census) of the Herzegovinian sanjak, which was created in the period between 1475 and 1477, which points to the fact that the Ottomans either did not conquer it at that time or that the fortress they didn't hold a crew yet. Interestingly, some villages of the Imotski Krajina are mentioned under Turkish rule, such as Opanci (Lovreć) and Vinjani (Gornji and Donji). It is a historical fact that in the demarcation agreement from 1503, signed between the Croatian-Hungarian king Vladislav II. and Sultan Bayazid II, confirms Turkish rule in Imotski and neighboring Prološac. Already that year, the Ottomans kept a military garrison in Imotski.
Having captured the former Habsburg and Venetian medieval fortresses, the Ottomans included them in their Krajina defense system. The forts in the interior took over the function of monitoring the surrounding territory and important traffic routes, while the forts of the Adriatic hinterland along the border were turned into a defensive chain. Forts were the most important defense element of every early modern state, including the Ottoman territory. They were administrative centers, they served to accommodate soldiers, court and religious officials, and in times of war they became refuges for the civilian population from the suburbs and unprotected rural areas.
more history info from:
https://imotskenovine.hr/povijest-tvrdave-topana/