Szigetvar, Croatia. The city, on the road to Vienna, is besieged by the Ottomans. Governor Miklos Zrinyi refuses to surrender. After dozens of fierce assaults, the Turks capture two of the three islands, costing 3,000 Ottomans and 300 Croats and Hungarians. The surviving defenders gather in the citadel on the third island. Zrinyi removes his armor and, with a squad of 300 men, emerges from the citadel gate and massacres the Janissaries trapped on the elevated stone road. He is then struck by an arrow in the eye and two bullets in the body. With his head on a pike, the Janissaries, overwhelmingly outnumbered, enter the citadel and crowd into the small square within the walls. To this end, a young woman hiding in the Santa Barbara church lights the explosives. The terrible explosion, amplified by the castle’s sturdy walls, brought with it three thousand Ottoman janissaries. Another Ottoman attempt to take Vienna had literally gone up in smoke.
