Room 12 – The north-east tower and the events of 1691

Narration text

We climb into the north-east tower, which spans two levels and is devoted to one of the citadel's best-known episodes. In the autumn of 1691, King John III Sobieski of Poland, the hero who had saved Vienna from the Ottoman siege, marched into Moldavia with a heavy army. On the way back, the Poles attacked Neamț Citadel.

Inside were only a handful of plăieși, the mountain guards. According to the accounts, they held out for several days under fire from mortars and cannon before surrendering. When they came out, the Poles were astonished to see how few the defenders had been.

The story of their courage became legend and was turned by Costache Negruzzi into the novella Sobieski and the Romanians. The chronicler Ion Neculce notes that the king then left troops with supplies in the fortresses and monasteries of the area: at Neamț, Suceava, Agapia, Secu, Câmpulung and Hangu. Only the Peace of Karlowitz in 1699 obliged the Poles to leave the fortresses of Moldavia.