The story of this place
In July 1683 an Ottoman army of some 150,000 under Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa laid siege to Vienna, the gateway to central Europe. For two months the city held as its walls crumbled. On 12 September a relief army led by Polish King Jan III Sobieski gathered on the Kahlenberg heights above the city. In the late afternoon Sobieski personally led around 18,000 cavalry—including the famed Polish winged hussars—downhill in what is often called the largest cavalry charge in history, shattering the Ottoman lines. The victory turned the tide of Ottoman expansion into Europe for good.