Osijek Audio Tours

In 1687, Habsburg forces expelled the Ottomans who had occupied Osijek for 150 years, and the Austrian military architects got to work immediately. Between 1712 and 1715, they built Tvrdja, a baroque citadel on the Drava River's bank with five planned bastions, a central parade ground (now Holy Trinity Square), and rows of military and administrative buildings in warm ochre and cream. The Ottomans had left; Austria would announce itself in stone. The result is one of the best-preserved baroque military ensembles in Central Europe, and one of the least-visited.

The wider city was originally the Roman settlement of Mursa, significant enough that Emperor Hadrian gave it municipal status around 133 AD.

Osijek has been changing hands for two millennia, which explains both its layered character and the particular resilience its residents tend to mention when the city's history comes up. In the 1990s Croatian War of Independence, the city was shelled for months from Serb positions across the river. Approximately 800 people were killed. The repair work is largely invisible now, but locals remember.