Very rare medal from 1699, by Smeltzing, struck on the occasion of the Peace of Karlowitz.
The Treaty of Karlowitz (1699) was concluded in the town of Karlowitz, today’s Sremski Karlovci in Vojvodina, chosen as neutral ground between Habsburg Peterwardein and Ottoman Belgrade. The Russian Empire was represented during the negotiations by Prokopiy Voznitsin.
Under the terms of the treaty, the Ottoman Empire was forced to cede to Austria the entirety of the Kingdom of Hungary together with Transylvania (except for the Banat of Temesvár), as well as most of Croatia (corresponding roughly to present-day Slavonia). Venice had its possession of the Peloponnese (Morea), held since 1686, confirmed, while Poland regained Podolia with Kamieniec Podolski and other lands lost to the Ottoman Porte in 1672.
This peace treaty represents a turning point in European history: for the first time the Sultan of Constantinople was compelled to yield to a Christian power. The Treaty of Karlowitz laid the foundations for the rise of a new great power, the Habsburg monarchy, and marked the beginning of the military decline of the Ottoman Empire. Russia concluded a two-year truce that led directly to the Treaty of Constantinople (1700), which confirmed its possession of Azov.
In the world’s largest archive, CoinArchives, only two records.
Mint luster on both sides.
Obverse: the emperor with captured trophies and the sultan beneath a palm tree, ships visible in the background
Reverse: two hands holding a rose branch above a triple lily; next to it, a hand with a sword and a hand with a sabre; in the background, Karlowitz on the left and a tented camp on the right
Silver, diameter 38 mm, weight 22.95 g
