Enlightenment · Europe · War

1683

Battle of Vienna

September 12, 1683

A relief army of Germans, Austrians, and Polish hussars under King Jan III Sobieski swept down from the Kahlenberg hills and shattered the Ottoman siege in a single afternoon. Kara Mustafa was strangled for the failure. The Ottoman advance into Europe was finished; the slow imperial retreat had begun, and the long liberation of Hungary and the Balkans could commence.