Historical information
Historical data on the fort of Soko, which was in the mediaeval župa or county of Usora, are few, but data from
the early Ottoman period confirm that the fort played an important part in both
periods.
There are two different data about the earliest reference to Soko fort. Both
are situated in the first half of the fifteenth century and linked with Prince
Radivoj Ostojić, son of the Bosnian king Ostoja and brother of the Bosnian king
Tomaš. One group of authors say that the earliest reference to the fort
in historical sources dates from 1429, while another group sets the date as
1449.
In some notes it is said that the fortress of Soko is referred to by that name
in a marriage settlement dated 2 June 1429 between Radivoj Ostojić and his
father-in-law Nikola from Velika, whose daughter Katarina Radivoj
married. Under the terms of the settlement, Radivoj bestowed on his
wife’s parents half of Soko and all his holdings in mediaeval Bosnia and Slavonia. The assumption is that
since Radivoj thus became part of the Magyar society of that region he was
spared Magyar marauding campaigns. Other authors cite the same date but
place the marriage settlement in 1449. In the middle ages the Soko fort,
together with Doboj, Srebrenik and Teočak, was on the southern line of
Bosnian border fortresses marching with Hungary. The northern
line was formed by Dobor, Gradačac and Koraj.
The Srebrenik banovina fell under Ottoman rule in 1512, and it was probably
then that Sokograd (Soko fort) was occupied. With the fall of Srebrenik,
the entire region between the lower courses of the Bosna and Drina, Spreča and Sava, where there were
twelve fortified towns, became part of the Ottoman Empire. According to
Hungarian sources, Soko was burned by its Magyar garrison. The area was
“no man’s land” for a long time, until 1426, when following the battle of
Mohács, the Ottomans were able to establish firm governance there. Until
that time the garrisons were ulufedžija (day-wage frontier guards) without
permanent timars allocated landholdings from the revenues of which the members
of the garrisons were maintained), and are not referred to in the
records. The first census defter with timars entered with the name of
members of the Soko garrison dates from as late as 1528. According to a
spahi census defter dating from 1533, that year the garrison of Soko fort
acquired permanent timars. In a defter of the Zvornik sanjak dating from
1528, the settled Vlachs in the varoš of Soko fort are also listed.
Although it was recorded that in the mid sixteenth century the Ottomans
maintained a small garrison of 19 in Soko fort, they did not abandon it until
1840. In the sixteenth century the region belonged to the Zvornik sanjak,
and upon formation of the kapetanijas it became part of the Srebrenik
kapetanija. It was turned into a military fortress run by a dizdar.
Over the next 150 years it had no strategic importance, right up to the time of
the Vienna war (1683-1699).
There are few details from the eighteenth century. Some data has survived from
1716 on, when the dizdar of the fort was Hasanaga. At that time Soko also
had an artillery aga. In the 1770s, the Gradačac kapetan, Mehmed, gave
his assent to the fort being repaired. It is also noted that in 1833 the
fort had seven cannon and that in 1838 essential minor repairs were not carried
out.
It was abandoned in 1840. It is now state-owned.
