A Way to Blue at Ram Fortress.

A Way to Blue at Ram Fortress in Serbia.

July 2021.

After two glorious days exploring the various delights of The River Danube in and around the town of Veliko Gradište, Sladja and I felt ready to head further out. This time our focus would be a pair of historic and somewhat isolated sites.

Normally we try to tick off such places independently on foot or by use of public transport. However, we were now a little short of time and the July temperatures had gone from pretty hot to scorchio. Thus we decided it was probably a good idea to hire a driver for the afternoon and get hand-delivered to each spot.

It was definitely a relief to be in an air-conditioned car as the ever-present Danube whooshed past our window. Our first destination was Ram Fortress, a recently reconstructed Ottoman fort dating back to the 15th century. It sits elegantly perched atop a lofty rock on the edge of the Homolje mountains overlooking a dramatic bend in the river.

Jumping out of the taxi, the first thing that struck me was the silence. There was nobody around, not a single soul. Maybe the afternoon heat had put people off, or perhaps this was just a bit too out of the way. Whatever the reason, we soon realised that we were going to have the fortress all to ourselves.

A Way to Blue at Ram Fortress.

We did see another person of course, namely the bored woman at the ticket office who took our money and gave us our stubs. Passing through the entry gate, within thirty seconds or so we had entered the complex and were gratefully drinking in the stunning fusion of river and sky. A Way to Blue, if you will.

As one of Serbia’s oldest military posts, historians reckon a fort of some description once stood here as far back as 1128. The surrounding land also once housed a Roman mausoleum (remains have been uncovered by archaeologists), while various Serbian folk stories claim that Atilla the Hun once passed through the area during one of his infamous murderous rampages in the first half of the 5th century.

Today’s fortress sprang up in 1483 by order of the Ottoman Sultan Beyazid II, who wanted to protect the northern border of his empire from potential attacks by Serbian and Hungarian forces. His team used the natural materials available to them, a winning combination of crushed stone and limestone mortar.

A fun legend claims he had initially rested and fallen asleep atop the rocky slope. Upon awakening, he felt so energised that he insisted his men start building a fortress on that very spot.

It was a privilege for us to wander around the old fort as if we owned the joint. Somehow I knew that it has what one would call an irregular shape. However, not being an expert on fortresses I couldn’t put my finger on how exactly. My answer came from various online sources which reveal that it has an atypical pentangular shape. Groovy.

Ram Fortress.

This, in addition to its small size and compact layout, contributed to making the fortress difficult to destroy by cannon fire. Moreover, its carefully chosen location only added to its strengths. Indeed a sharp cliff face shielded it from the west, while double ramparts and a deep dry moat protected the remaining sides. Clever, clever.

In addition to its defence duties the fortress doubled as a heavy artillery storage centre. It also served as a control point for Danube traffic. Elite Ottoman military forces meanwhile would regularly bed down here on their way to and from missions in the region.

The fortress did witness some minor skirmishes over the years. But after the Battle of Mohács in 1526 the Ottomans gained large swathes of land in Hungary and the border shifted, suddenly leaving Ram Fortress in nowheresville. As a result, it continued to operate only as a trading post. 

The fortress did regain a touch of its former importance in the 18th century throughout the seemingly endless Ottoman–Habsburg Wars. But by 1788 its long run of luck ran out when much of the place was destroyed in the Koča’s Frontier Rebellion. 

Ram Fortress.

Ram was never fully rebuilt and by the mid 19th century the Ottomans said enough was enough and abandoned it. After the Serbians moved in it became a border settlement and customs office.

During this period, a young man by the name of Vuk Karadžić worked here as a customs officer. I wonder how many of his colleagues had even an inkling that one day he would become Serbia’s most celebrated linguist and creator of the first dictionary in the reformed language. Longtime readers may remember that we visited his grave while exploring Belgrade.

Today’s fortress is the result of a fantastic reconstruction process that lasted two years from the summer of 2017 to the summer of 2019. Impressively, they were able to source the same natural materials as the sultan originally used from nearby shale quarries.

It took Sladja and I perhaps half an hour to explore all the corners, staircases and alleys of the fortress. By the time we reached the top rampart we were tired and hot. Luckily, a part of the walkway provided some shade. The perfect opportunity to rest for a moment out of the sun and get my breath back.

Having the rampart to ourselves was a magical experience that was very much enhanced by the quietness and fluffy sky. And of course the absolute majesty of the Danube, which looked like an ocean and sat almost barren save for a lone plodding boat.

The Dreamy Danube.

In truth we could have stayed up there a while longer. But we didn’t want to test our driver’s patience and thought it best to make our way back down so that he could take us to our next location. Seeya later Mr. Pigeon, never take these views for granted.

“Tell me all that you may know,
Show me what you have to show.
Won’t you come and say if you know the way to blue”.

Nick Drake (1968).

And so… leaving the Danube to its hypnotic devices… we carefully picked a path back down to the exit where the cool of the taxi awaited.

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