Siege of Belgrade (1456) in the context of "Mahmud Pasha Angelović"

Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and at the crossroads of the Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. According to the 2022 census, the population of Belgrade city proper stands at 1,197,114, its contiguous urban area has 1,298,661 inhabitants, while population of city's administrative area (which roughly corresponds to its metro area) totals 1,681,405 people. It is one of the major cities of Southeast Europe and the third-most populous city on the river Danube.

Belgrade is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in Europe and the world. One of the most important prehistoric cultures of Europe, the Vinča culture, evolved within the Belgrade area in the 6th millennium BC. In antiquity, Thraco-Dacians inhabited the region and, after 279 BC, Celts settled the city, naming it Singidūn. It was conquered by the Romans under the reign of Augustus and awarded Roman city rights in the mid-2nd century. It was settled by the Slavs in the 520s, and changed hands several times between the Byzantine Empire, the Frankish Empire, the Bulgarian Empire, and the Kingdom of Hungary before it became the seat of the Serbian king Stefan Dragutin in 1284. Belgrade served as capital of the Serbian Despotate during the reign of Stefan Lazarević, and then his successor Đurađ Branković returned it to the Hungarian king in 1427. Noon bells in support of the Hungarian army against the Ottoman Empire during the siege in 1456 have remained a widespread church tradition to this day. In 1521, Belgrade was conquered by the Ottomans and became the seat of the Sanjak of Smederevo. It frequently passed from Ottoman to Habsburg rule, which saw the destruction of most of the city during the Ottoman–Habsburg wars.

The Hungarian–Ottoman wars (Hungarian: magyar–török háborúk, Turkish: Macaristan-Osmanlı Savaşları) were a series of battles between the Ottoman Empire and the medieval Kingdom of Hungary. Following the Byzantine Civil War, the Ottoman capture of Gallipoli, and the inconclusive Battle of Kosovo in 1389, the Ottoman Empire was poised to conquer the entirety of the Balkans. It also sought and expressed desire to expand further north into Central Europe, beginning with the Hungarian lands.

Since 1360s Hungary confronted with the Ottoman Empire. The Kingdom of Hungary led several crusades, campaigns and carried out several defence battles and sieges against the Ottomans. Hungary bore the brunt of the Ottoman wars in Europe during the 15th century and successfully halted the Ottoman advance. The Ottomans won a significant victory at the Battle of Varna in 1444, but suffered a defeat at the 1456 Siege of Belgrade. One notable figure of this period was Vlad the Impaler, who, with limited Hungarian help, resisted Ottoman rule until the Ottomans placed his brother, Radu the Handsome, on the throne of Wallachia. Ottoman success was once again halted at Moldavia due to Hungarian intervention, but the Turks finally succeeded when Moldavia and then Belgrade fell to Bayezid II and Suleiman the Magnificent, respectively. In 1526 the Ottomans crushed the Hungarian army at the Battle of Mohács, where King Louis II of Hungary and more than 20,000 of his soldiers died.

John of Capistrano, OFM (Italian: San Giovanni da Capestrano, Hungarian: Kapisztrán János, Polish: Jan Kapistran, Croatian: Ivan Kapistran Serbian: Јован Капистран, Jovan Kapistran; 24 June 1386 – 23 October 1456) was an Italian Franciscan friar and Catholic priest from the town of Capestrano, Abruzzo. Famous as a preacher, theologian, and inquisitor, he earned himself the nickname "the Soldier Saint" when in 1456 at age 70 he led a Crusade against the invading Ottoman Empire at the siege of Belgrade with the Hungarian military commander John Hunyadi.

Elevated to sainthood, he is the patron saint of jurists and military chaplains, as well as the namesake of two Franciscan missions, one in Southern California and the other in San Antonio, Texas.