Pirot Fortress

Pirot Fortress Momchilov Grad
Pirot Serbia
Pirot Fortress
Site information
Type	Fortification
Open to the public	Yes
Site history
Built	14th century
Materials	Stone
Designations	Cultural Heritage of Serbia

Pirot Fortress is situated in Pirot, Serbia. It was built in the 14th century. It was supposed to serve as a defense against the Turks along the ancient Roman road called Via Militaris (Military Road) which connected Belgrade to Constantinople.

Pirot Fortress was declared Monument of Culture of Great Importance in 1979, and it is protected by Republic of Serbia.^[1]

History

Through different periods of time Pirot Fortress bore different names: Turres (Tower), in the 3rd and 4th centuries during the Roman Empire, and then Pirgos, Thurib, Momčilov grad, Kale, Tvrđava.^[2] Archaeological research revealed that a settlement in this location existed as early as 5,000 years ago, and other traces from the Eneolithic and Iron Age, Early Byzantine and the Middle Ages were also discovered.^[3]

Pirot first became a part of the Serbian state during the reign of Stefan Nemanja (late 12th century), and was part of Serbian territories during the reign of Emperors Dušan and Uroš, as well as during the reign of Prince Lazar. During the rise of Moravian Serbia, at the time of Lazar's reign, Pirot was a strategically important city on the eastern border of the state.^[2]

Pirot fortress consists of three parts: Upper, Middle and Lower Town. Upper Town was built in the last decades of the 14th century, during the reign of Prince Lazar, and Middle Town during the reign of Despot Stefan Lazarević. Upper Town has an elongated polygonal shape in the west-east direction, measuring 50x35m. Middle Town has an ellipsoidal shape, measuring 70x60 m, and descends alongside Upper Town, but without any structural connection to it. Lower Town, measuring 180x130m, was built on a plain in the late 18th century, as an irregular rectangle in the southwest-northeast direction.^[1][2]

Gallery

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See also

• Monuments of Culture of Great Importance
• Tourism in Serbia

References

Citations

1. "Споменици културе у Србији, Пиротски град". spomenicikulture.mi.sanu.ac.rs. Retrieved 2025-12-12.
2. "Пиротска тврђава". Srbija projekti eu (in Serbian). Retrieved 2025-12-12.
3. "Tvrdjava Kale – Pirotski grad, Momčilov grad". www.topirot.com (in Serbian). Retrieved 2025-12-12.

Sources

• Fine, John Van Antwerp (1994), The Late Medieval Balkans: A Critical Survey from the Late Twelfth Century to the Ottoman Conquest, University of Michigan Press, ISBN 978-0-472-08260-5
• Soulis, George Christos (1984), "Momčilo", The Serbs and Byzantium during the Reign of Tsar Stephen Dušan (1331–1355) and his Successors, Dumbarton Oaks, pp. 149–150, ISBN 0-88402-137-8

External links

• Association of fortresses and remnants of fortified towns in Serbia, Pirot
• Pirotski grad SANU web-site, at www.spomenicikulture.mi.sanu.ac.rs (in Serbian)
• Pirot.Org Web portal and forum of municipality of Pirot (in Serbian)

43°09′33″N 22°34′54″E / 43.15917°N 22.58167°E / 43.15917; 22.58167