Downstream from the Golubac Fortress and passing through the Iron Gate, you enter the most beautiful place on Earth, a gorge where nature and man have imprinted some of the most interesting and beautiful stories. Through the gorge all the way to Kladovo, there are places: Gospođin vir, Lepenski vir, Donji Milanovac, Tekija, Trajanova tabla, Hajdučka vodenica, Ada Kale, a switchyard at the Hydroelectric Power Plant “Đerdap 1”, Sipski kanal … and finally Kladovo, a town located on on the right bank of the Danube, which keeps from oblivion not only the Đerdap gorge, but also other fortresses and monuments from the distant past. On the very shore is Fetislam, a fortress from the Turkish period built in 1524 by Bali-beg.

The fortress of Fetislam was built by the Turks on the bank of the river, across the road from the Romanian Severin, as a river base for further conquests and control of the Danube. Hungarian sources testify to its erection, from which we learn that Bali-beg built an artillery fortress on the Danube. Turkish sources mention both the fortress and the town under the name Fetislam, and Christian sources under the name Kladovo.

There is no information on what the fortress looked like in the 16th century when it was built. It was not until the 17th century that the first descriptions of Fetislam were given by the travel writers Hadži Kalfa and Evlvi Čelebi, who said: “The fortress is located on a hill on the banks of the Danube. It was built in the shape of a quadrangle and supplied with 12 strong and high towers, which were built of hard material and covered with planks. The fortress has double walls, a moat and one demir gate that faces southeast. In the tower, above the gate, there is the Sulejman-han’s mosque with a minaret built of brick and the house of the dizdars. The circumference of the fortress is one thousand and one hundred steps. It is a small and strong stone fortress, built as hard as if it had been built by Šedad.”. The medieval fortress Fetislam covers an area of ​​about 18 hectares, at the entrance to the town of Kladovo. It consists of a large and a small fortification. The Great Bastion Fortress or Large City has 6 tower-bastions, connected by ramparts, with masonry passages, surrounded by a moat and with drawbridges, in front of all three main gates: the Danube, Orospi and Varoš gates. Above the arched, main entrances of the gates, during the last renovation and reconstruction, honorary inscriptions were placed, glorifying Sultan Mahmut II. Many buildings and structures were discovered inside the fortress: gunpowder and warehouses, lagoons, hammam, mosque … Today, the remains of masonry water installations, wells and water supply canals of the city and the fortress can still be seen in the nearby Butorka Bay.

The Old Fortress or Small Town is rectangular in shape and consists of an upper and a coastal part. At the corners, its two-storey, circular towers are visible, connected by ramparts with a jagged top. There used to be a gunpowder warehouse in the small fortress, and a trench filled with water around the fortification itself. The census of the crew at the time of its creation testifies to how important Fetislam was for the Turks. It states that there are 410 soldiers in the fortress and that the fortress is equipped with significant weapons, that there are 38 zarbezens who could have been on the chaikas, 38 slingshots and 200 rifles.

During its long duration, the fortress also had periods of suffering. At the end of the 16th century, Christian sources record that 2,000 hajduks from Vlaška crossed the Danube, attacked and plundered Kladovo, and then withdrew to Erdelj. That is when the Kladovo fortress was mentioned for the first time. A few years later, the Vlach duke Mihajlo attacked the fortress and devastated it. At the end of the 17th century, the Austrians also became an important participant in the life of Fetislam.

Fetislam Fortress, one of the most beautiful Danube fortresses, is waiting to be rebuilt. Within the Big City there is a Visitor Center and sports fields where life takes place every day. After the renovation of the Small Town, we believe that its stage facing the river will shine again and be a real scene of great events on the Danube.