Constantinople's walls fell on May 29, 1453 which happens to be a Tuesday. Even today some Greeks consider Tuesday to be an unlucky day.
Mavi Boncuk | Orban was Hungarian according to the majority of sources, while some scholars also mention his potential Germanancestry. Alternative theories suggest his Wallachian roots and he was described by Laonikos Chalkokondyles with the unclear term "Dacian".[1]
In 1452 he originally offered his services to the Byzantines, but emperor Constantine XI could not afford his high salary nor did he possess the materials necessary for constructing such a large siege cannon. Orban then left Constantinople and approached the Ottoman sultan Mehmed II who was preparing to besiege the city, claiming that his weapon could blast 'the walls of Babylon itself'. Given abundant funds and materials, the engineer built the gun within three months at Adrianople(Edirne), from which it was dragged by sixty oxen to Constantinople. The cannon designed by Orban was named "Basilica" and was 27 feet (8.2 m) long, and able to hurl a 600 lb (272 kg) stone ball over a mile (1.6 km). In the meantime, Orban also produced other cannon used by the Turkish siege forces.
The bombard technology, which mainly German technicians designed at first for the Hungarian Army, had been established between 1400 and 1450 all over western Europe, transforming siege warfare, with some pieces like the Faule Mette, Dulle Griet, Mons Meg and the Pumhart von Steyr which are still extant from the period. Urban, along with an entire crew, was probably killed during the siege [2] when one of his super guns exploded, then not an unusual occurrence. A modern author speculated that "he could have been German too" based on other gun founders serving in the Royal Hungarian Court.
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The Dardanelles Gun, cast in 1464 and based on the Orban bombard that was used for the Ottoman besiegers of Constantinople in 1453; British Royal Armouries collection.
[1] The origins of Orban remains uncertain. According to some scholars he was Hungarian; John Julius Norwich, in A Short History of Byzantium (1997), suggest he was German. Laonicus Chalcondyles (c. 1423–1490), a Byzantine Greek scholar from Athens who lived in the time of siege, in his work Proofs of Histories says that Orban was a 'Dacian' - '[...] but the Emperor had a Dacian cannon founder named Orban, creator of weapons and tools for breking the walls. [...] Orban was a man between two ages, with blond mustache and rosy-cheeked'. Chalcondyles named in his works the Romanians as 'Dacians'. 'Orban' is indeed a Hungarian name, but it is frequent also in Belgium and Holland; spelled 'Urban', it has a Latin ascendancy. Probably, Orban was a Transylvanian-born Hungarian or Romanian, but the hypothesis remains unverified.
[2] Orban's cannon had several drawbacks, however: it could only be fired seven times a day; it took three hours to reload; the cannon balls were in very short supply; after each shot, crews soaked the barrel in warm oil to prevent cold air from penetrating and enlarging the fissures; and the cannon is said to have collapsed under its own recoil after six weeks (this fact however is disputed, being only reported in the letter of Archbishop Leonardo di Chio and the later and often unreliable Russian chronicle of Nestor Iskander). Having previously established a large foundry approximately 150 miles away, Mehmed now had to undergo the painstaking process of transporting his massive pieces of artillery. Orban's giant cannon was said to have been accompanied by a crew of 60 oxen and over 400 men. (Doukas or Dukas, The Turkish-Byzantine History, (1341-1462)).
The Dardanelles Gun was cast in bronze in 1464 by Munir Ali with a weight of 16.8 t and a length of 518 cm, being capable of firing stone balls of up to 63 cm diameter (over 25 inches).The powder chamber and the barrel are connected by the way of a screw mechanism, allowing easier transport of the unwieldy device.
Such super-sized bombards had been employed in Western Europe siege warfare since the beginning of the 15th century, and were introduced to the Ottoman army in 1453 by the gunfounder Orban (from Brasov, Kingdom of Hungary) on the occasion of the Siege of Constantinople. Ali's piece is assumed to have followed closely the outline of these guns.
Along with other huge cannons, the Dardanelles Gun was still present for duty more than 350 years later in 1807, when a Royal Navy force appeared and commenced the Dardanelles Operation. Turkish forces loaded the ancient relics with propellant and projectiles, then fired them at the British ships. The British squadron suffered 28 dead through this bombardment.
In 1866, on the occasion of a state visit, Sultan Abdülâziz gave the Dardanelles Gun to Queen Victoria as a present. It became part of the Royal Armouries collection and was displayed to visitors at the Tower of London and was then moved to Fort Nelson, Hampshire, overlooking Portsmouth.
Mavi Boncuk | Orban was Hungarian according to the majority of sources, while some scholars also mention his potential Germanancestry. Alternative theories suggest his Wallachian roots and he was described by Laonikos Chalkokondyles with the unclear term "Dacian".[1]
In 1452 he originally offered his services to the Byzantines, but emperor Constantine XI could not afford his high salary nor did he possess the materials necessary for constructing such a large siege cannon. Orban then left Constantinople and approached the Ottoman sultan Mehmed II who was preparing to besiege the city, claiming that his weapon could blast 'the walls of Babylon itself'. Given abundant funds and materials, the engineer built the gun within three months at Adrianople(Edirne), from which it was dragged by sixty oxen to Constantinople. The cannon designed by Orban was named "Basilica" and was 27 feet (8.2 m) long, and able to hurl a 600 lb (272 kg) stone ball over a mile (1.6 km). In the meantime, Orban also produced other cannon used by the Turkish siege forces.
The bombard technology, which mainly German technicians designed at first for the Hungarian Army, had been established between 1400 and 1450 all over western Europe, transforming siege warfare, with some pieces like the Faule Mette, Dulle Griet, Mons Meg and the Pumhart von Steyr which are still extant from the period. Urban, along with an entire crew, was probably killed during the siege [2] when one of his super guns exploded, then not an unusual occurrence. A modern author speculated that "he could have been German too" based on other gun founders serving in the Royal Hungarian Court.
The Dardanelles Gun, cast in 1464 and based on the Orban bombard that was used for the Ottoman besiegers of Constantinople in 1453; British Royal Armouries collection.
[1] The origins of Orban remains uncertain. According to some scholars he was Hungarian; John Julius Norwich, in A Short History of Byzantium (1997), suggest he was German. Laonicus Chalcondyles (c. 1423–1490), a Byzantine Greek scholar from Athens who lived in the time of siege, in his work Proofs of Histories says that Orban was a 'Dacian' - '[...] but the Emperor had a Dacian cannon founder named Orban, creator of weapons and tools for breking the walls. [...] Orban was a man between two ages, with blond mustache and rosy-cheeked'. Chalcondyles named in his works the Romanians as 'Dacians'. 'Orban' is indeed a Hungarian name, but it is frequent also in Belgium and Holland; spelled 'Urban', it has a Latin ascendancy. Probably, Orban was a Transylvanian-born Hungarian or Romanian, but the hypothesis remains unverified.
[2] Orban's cannon had several drawbacks, however: it could only be fired seven times a day; it took three hours to reload; the cannon balls were in very short supply; after each shot, crews soaked the barrel in warm oil to prevent cold air from penetrating and enlarging the fissures; and the cannon is said to have collapsed under its own recoil after six weeks (this fact however is disputed, being only reported in the letter of Archbishop Leonardo di Chio and the later and often unreliable Russian chronicle of Nestor Iskander). Having previously established a large foundry approximately 150 miles away, Mehmed now had to undergo the painstaking process of transporting his massive pieces of artillery. Orban's giant cannon was said to have been accompanied by a crew of 60 oxen and over 400 men. (Doukas or Dukas, The Turkish-Byzantine History, (1341-1462)).
The Dardanelles Gun was cast in bronze in 1464 by Munir Ali with a weight of 16.8 t and a length of 518 cm, being capable of firing stone balls of up to 63 cm diameter (over 25 inches).The powder chamber and the barrel are connected by the way of a screw mechanism, allowing easier transport of the unwieldy device.
Such super-sized bombards had been employed in Western Europe siege warfare since the beginning of the 15th century, and were introduced to the Ottoman army in 1453 by the gunfounder Orban (from Brasov, Kingdom of Hungary) on the occasion of the Siege of Constantinople. Ali's piece is assumed to have followed closely the outline of these guns.
Along with other huge cannons, the Dardanelles Gun was still present for duty more than 350 years later in 1807, when a Royal Navy force appeared and commenced the Dardanelles Operation. Turkish forces loaded the ancient relics with propellant and projectiles, then fired them at the British ships. The British squadron suffered 28 dead through this bombardment.
In 1866, on the occasion of a state visit, Sultan Abdülâziz gave the Dardanelles Gun to Queen Victoria as a present. It became part of the Royal Armouries collection and was displayed to visitors at the Tower of London and was then moved to Fort Nelson, Hampshire, overlooking Portsmouth.