Buda (Hungary) History Siege, 1686

The siege of Buda (Hungarian: Buda visszafoglalása, lit. 'Recapture of Buda') was a military engagement during the Great Turkish War, in which forces of the Holy League, led by the Habsburg Monarchy, recaptured the fortified city of Buda (now part of modern-day Budapest) from the Ottoman Empire. The siege took place between 18 June and 9 September 1686, ending nearly 150 years of Ottoman sovereignty over the former Hungarian capital. The campaign followed the failed Ottoman siege of Vienna in 1683 and was part of a broader counteroffensive launched by the Holy League. The coalition army of up to 100,000 men besieged the city for more than two months before storming the defences. The fall of Buda marked a decisive step in the Habsburg consolidation of central Hungary, leading to the recognition of hereditary Habsburg rule by the Hungarian Diet at Pressburg in 1687.