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Yakubian Ape's avatar

When discussion is had of the GOATs of European royalty, you can't have the discussion without Sobieski. His victory at Vienna is nothing short of the stuff of legends. I like to think I'm well-versed in history, too, but I've never heard of the "The Deluge" before - though, now I'm probably going to have to binge read about it. It sounds remarkably similar to the Time of Troubles in Russia, when the entire country was basically being torn apart in all directions.

That all being said, I was recently in Vienna and, for as momentous as the breaking of the siege was, there was remarkably little to commemorate it in the city. There are statues of pretty much everyone of any repute that played any part in the city's history, but none of Sobieski. There's not even a monument commemorating the event that I found. I did discover, while doing research for this comment to make sure I wasn't just talking out of my ass, that there was a statue made of Sobieski that was intended to be placed in Vienna in 2018 to commemorate the 335th anniversary of his victory, it was rejected by the city's mayor for being "anti-Turkish". Apparently, even in Poland, where the statue was ultimately erected in Krakow, it was controversial because, er... something something Anders Brevik because he mentioned the Siege of Vienna in his manifesto once. And he's not even Polish.

Laughable.

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Barbara Gordley's avatar

We should remember both Sobieski’s victory and the great Croatian victory of 1566 at Sziget. The gallant defenders died but so delayed the Turks that they were unable to mount a similar offensive until the siege of Vienna a century later.

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