Aladja Hisar (Krushevac, Serbia)

Aladja Hisar, "the motley-coloured fortress", was the Turkish name of Krushevac, a town on the south side of the Western Morava in Serbia. ¹

The town was the capital of Serbia under Lazar, who assembled his army there to march against the Turks before his defeat at Kosovo in 1389, and under his son Stephan. The Turks occupied it in 1428, after the accession of George Brankovic, who had made Semendria his capital. Muhammad II established a gunfoundry there. It was the capital of a sanjak in the eyalet of Rumeli. The Austrians occupied it briefly in 1737, and again from 1789 to 1791, when the Treaty of Sistova restored it to the Turks. From 1806 to 1813 the Serbian insurgents of Kara George held it; in 1833 it was ceded to the autonomous principality of Serbia as one of the "six districts". ¹