Šuma Garavica i „ničija zemlja" na slavonsko-turskom pograničju u 16. i 17. stoljeću
Garavica Forest and “No Man’s Land” on the Slavonian-Turkish Frontier in the 16th and 17th Centuries

Author(s): Stanko Andrić
Subject(s): Historical Geography, Environmental Geography, Maps / Cartography, 16th Century, 17th Century, The Ottoman Empire
Published by: Hrvatski institut za povijest
Keywords: Slavonia; Habsburg Monarchy; Ottoman Empire; Česma river; Ilova river; Garavica (mountain-forest); frontier; forest; reforestation; border fortresses; no man’s land; abatis; cartography;
Summary/Abstract: At the time of its greatest expansion, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the Ottoman Empire comprised the lower half of the land between the Drava and the Sava, previously part of the Hungarian-Croatian Kingdom. During the second half of the 16th century, the balance of power on that section of the new Ottoman border was established between the Ilova and Česma rivers, tributaries of the Sava, where a frontier zone was created, dividing the conquered parts (organized as Pakrac and Požega sanjaks) on the eastern side from the unconquered land (Croatia-Slavonia, as part of the Habsburg Empire) on the western side. There was no formal boundary line but rather a belt of “no man’s land”, a mostly depopulated stretch of land between the Drava and the Sava, which was from both sides carefully guarded by the crews of border fortresses. Through the use of written and subsequently also cartographic sources the author tries to show how this in the Middle Ages densely populated and economically well-developed area of the old Križevci and Virovitica counties became transformed into a deserted land where natural forces restored the primacy over the activities of human society. This “return to nature” manifested itself in the first place through unlimited growth of vegetation and ultimately natural reforestation – the growth of new forests throughout a relatively wide “march” or frontier zone. The Ottoman conquests in this area reached their limits in 1552 with the taking of important towns and fortresses of Virovitica near the Drava and of Čazma on the Česma river. The conquerors quickly established a new sanjak named Začasna after the medieval Croatian name of Čazma, Začesan or Začesemje (all forms meaning ‘beyond the Česma river’). However, they abandoned Čazma as soon as 1559 and moved the center of the sanjak to Pakrac, nearly 60 kilometers to the east. After the Slavonian-Turkish frontier zone finally stabilized around 1560, there were many episodes of the Kleinkrieg across the stretch of „no man’s land“ until the beginning of the seventeenth century. Turkish raids were certainly more frequent, but the Christian side repaid them in kind on a number of occasions. The organization of defense on the Slavonian side included the use of the abatis early on. In its decrees of 1562, the Croatian-Slavonian Sabor required the closing by barriers of river passes and the construction of wooden obstacles (resecandae indagines) at appropriate places. From then on, sources regularly refer to the use of abatis (indagines in Latin and Verhack or Waldverhack in German language texts) made by felling the trees in forested areas.

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