34 EASTERN AND CENTRAL EUROPE AT A GLANCE
1340 Ottoman
Turks invade
Thrace, gaining
a foothold
in Europe
ART AND ARCHITECTURE
In Central and North Eastern Europe, imperial courts
and mercantile cities imported the very latest in Gothic,
Renaissance and Baroque styles. In parts of the Balkan
peninsula subject to Ottoman rule, however, artistic
influences came from the East, and the region was
almost totally excluded from the European art world.
THE AGE OF EMPIRES
The arrival of the Ottoman Turks had a lasting impact on
Europe, wiping out the nation states of the Balkans and
replacing them with a multinational empire. The main
challenge to the Ottomans came from the Austrian
Habsburg Dynasty, which won control of Czech and
Hungarian territories before expanding south and east. For
centuries, the dominant force in North Eastern Europe was
the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, but this was ulti-
mately toppled by Russia, the rising power in the East.
GOTHIC RENAISSANCE
LATE MIDDLE AGES REFORMATION
1350 1400 1450 1500 1550
1349 Charles IV of
Bohemia beco mes Holy
Roman Emperor, turning
his capital Prague into
a hub of politics, art
and culture
1331–55 Under
Stefan Dušan,
Serbia becomes
the leading power
in the Balkans
1344 Work begins on St Vitus’s Cathedral (see
pp236–7), Prague’s distinctive landmark
1410 Polish and
Lithuanian armies
defeat the Teutonic
knights at Grünwald
1415 Czech reformist theologian Jan Hus
is burnt at the stake as a heretic, but his
ideas inspire the development of
Protestantism a century later
1431 Birth of Vlad II the Impaler,
who leads Wallachian resistance
against Ottoman expansion
1458-90 Reign of
Mátyás Corvinus
in Hungary
1463 The Ottomans
conquer Bosnia and
Herzegovina
1526 Ottoman Turks
defeat the Hungarians
at the Battle of Mohács;
the Hungarian crown
falls to the Austrian
Habsburg Dynasty
1533 Ivan IV
the Terrible
becomes Grand
Prince of
Muscovy
1380 Teutonic knights
reconstruct Malbork
Castle (see p207), creat-
ing one of the great
Gothic fortresses of
North Eastern Europe
1420s Frescoes at the
Manasija Monastery
(see p558) mark
the high point of
Serbian religious art
1477 Veit Stoss
begins work on the
altarpiece of the
Church of St Mary,
Cracow (see p186)
1490s Berndt Notke creates
the Dance Macabre for the
Niguliste Church (see p103)
1499 John of Kastav fills St
Trinity Church (see p536) with
vivid late-Gothic frescoes
1531 Construction of
Gazi Husrev Bey
Mosque (see p515),
Sarajevo
1552 Moscow’s St Basil’s Cathedral
(see pp130–31) built to celebrate the
victories of Ivan the Terrible
1561 Construction of Stari Most
bridge (see p520) in Mostar.
Destroyed in 1993, it is
reconstructed in 2004
1282 The Habsburg
Dynasty establishes
its first feudal
holdings in
Slovene lands
1569 Union of
Lublin creates
Polish-Lithuanian
Commonwealth
1353–91 Bosnia
becomes a re gional
power under King
Tvrtko, then falls
to the Ottoman
Turks