Sisak

Sisak stands on the Kupa, Sava and Odra, and its character is shaped by three unusually visible layers: Roman Siscia, a frontier fortress and the industrial city of the 19th and 20th centuries. Ancient Siscia operated an imperial mint and became the capital of Pannonia Savia in 297. At the meeting of the Kupa and Sava, the triangular Old Town fortress was begun in 1544 and ready for defence by 1550; it is inseparable from the decisive defeat of the Ottoman army on 22 June 1593. The modern centre is best explored beside the Kupa, linking archaeological traces of Siscia, the Cathedral of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross and the brick-and-stone Old Bridge completed in 1934. Mali Kaptol, one of Sisak’s oldest masonry houses and a late-18th-century building, now accommodates the tourist office. Railways, the refinery and metal industries later shaped Caprag and the city’s working landscape. The Old Town fortress remains closed for earthquake repairs following the 29 December 2020 earthquake, but its riverside setting and exterior are still central to understanding Sisak.