The Day of the Siege: September Eleven 1683 2012

Marco d’Aviano is introduced in late 1682 northern Italy as a Catholic monk famed for miracles, drawing crowds who hope he can summon a sign to halt the Ottoman advance. The Ottoman ruler Mehmed IV appoints Kara Mustafa Pasha as his Grand Vizier, a calculating general determined to carve out an Islamic caliphate in Europe and infamous for converting conquered churches into mosques. Before he marches, Kara Mustafa shows his favorite wife Leila an amulet he received after saving a man in Venice, a keepsake that becomes tangled in omens and prophecy. A kahin predicts that Kara Mustafa will witness bloodshed, though not his own, and he entrusts the amulet to his son, promising a safe return. A comet with a red tail splits the sky, bright enough to be read as a sign of victory by both men.

When the Holy Roman Empire calls, Emperor Leopold I invites Marco to Vienna for counsel. Marco warns that the Ottomans have broken their peace and are marching toward Vienna and Hungary, urging Leopold to form alliances with Saxony, Bavaria, and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Leopold’s court hesitates, but Marco’s influence grows after a different crisis helps him win support.

Leopold’s daughter, the Duchess of Lorena, suffers from breast cancer, and Marco miraculously heals her, a miracle that softens the emperor and makes him more receptive to Marco’s strategic advice. The odds in Vienna are stark: about 50,000 defenders against a 300,000-strong Ottoman army, with Kara Mustafa instructing his translator Abu’l to speak to the Viennese. Abu’l’s wife Lena accompanies Marco to Vienna and is shocked to learn her husband is working with the Ottomans; she at one point slips into the Ottoman camp to speak with him, is captured, and later freed after Abu’l pays for her release.

As the siege intensifies, Tartars arrive to warn of threats to the Ottomans’ rear, but Kara Mustafa dismisses the advice. The Ottomans unleash cannons to breach Vienna’s walls, and the defenders suffer heavy losses while clinging to hope. The Polish army, led by the rightful king of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, John III Sobieski, arrives to tip the balance. Despite initial resistance from the largely Protestant Viennese, Marco convinces them to heed Sobieski’s leadership. Sobieski plans a bold assault from the top of the Kahlenberg, striking from behind the Ottoman lines where they least expect danger.

A crucial moment arrives when Kara Mustafa realizes that the man he saved in Venice long ago was Marco, and he seeks a face-to-face meeting with the monk. The two clash over whether Islamic submission or Christian virtue should prevail, but Marco cannot deter Kara Mustafa from his attack. On September 11, 1683, Marco delivers a powerful speech urging the army to defend their Christian faith and Western civilization. The Ottoman cavalry suffer from strategic traps, and the Polish assault from the rear cripples their advance. The Ottomans retreat, and the threat to Western Europe is averted.

The aftermath unsettles Kara Mustafa, who is furious as his tacticians admit their warnings about artillery on Kahlenberg were ignored. The narrative elevates tension by suggesting a confrontation that ends with Kara Mustafa’s apparent death in battle, only for it to be revealed as a decoy—the real Kara Mustafa flees. In a grim coda, on Christmas Day, 1683 the sultan orders Kara Mustafa’s son to witness his father’s execution for failing to capture Vienna, and the amulet his father gave him is finally cast into the snow.