The Battle of Varvarin (Serbian Cyrillic: Варваринска битка) was fought on 5 September 1810 between Serbian Revolutionary forces supported by Russian troops and Ottoman forces near Varvarin, at the time part of the Ottoman Empire, (today Serbia).[2] During the 10-hour battle, the Turkish army unsuccessfully attacked the Russians and Serbs, but was never able to push them out of their positions, retreating in the evening with heavy casualties.
Battle
After their costly defence of Niš in May 1809, the Ottoman army launched a new expedition in Serbia decided to quell the rebellion.[2]Khurshid Pasha and an Ottoman army of 12,000 advanced against Kara George and 3,000 Serbians and Russians to the northwest at Varvarin.[2]
The Russian detachment sent in support was intercepted by Khurshid Pasha on open ground near Jasika at Varvarin, but the Russian square led by Irish-born Russian General Joseph O’Rourke proved impenetrable;[2] the Serbians, who had been held in reserve at the outset of the battle were then let by Karageorge on the exhausted Turks defeating them. Khurshid Pasha withdrew his remaining troops back to the camp behind Varvarin, and on the 13th withdrew through Kruševac to Niš.[3]
Aftermath
Another victory at Loznica a month later drove the Turks out of Serbia,[2] but following the Bucharest peace treaty of 1812, Russia halted the war against Turkey, and the Serbs were left to face the Ottoman Empire on their own.
Legacy
A statue to Joseph O'Rourke, as well as a monument to the fallen participants of the battle, was erected in 1910 on the centenary of the victory and unveiled by King Peter I of Serbia.
In 2010 a ceremony took place marking the 200 years of the Battle on the Varvarin, in presence of the Serbian minister of defense Dragan Šutanovac and of the Ambassador of Russia.[4]
