ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how the geopolitical competition between two empires that resulted in the formation of a new border at the end of the seventeenth century fundamentally changed a city. At the center of attention is the fortress that was designed by the Habsburgs when they conquered Niš for a short time in 1690 and that was kept by the Ottomans when they repossessed the city. In the restoration that the Ottomans initiated in the 1720s, the fortress became the prime location to represent the empire architecturally in a number of ornamented gates. In addition, the frequent wars between the imperial contenders also affected Ottoman urban governance of the multi-ethnic city that had a large minority of Christian inhabitants. Ottoman policy oscillated between suspicion vis-à-vis the Christian population of the city for alleged acts of treason and the will to reintegrate them into urban life. Overall, the chapter shows that imperial politics shaping the urban environment in this border zone were always relational: they have to be conceived as mutual reactions to the imperial competitor beyond the border.
