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The historical and archival evidence that has survived relating to the natural, northern hinterland of Stara Gradiška is poor and it does not provide enough information to make a precise reconstruction of what happened in that area. The names of noble families, settlements, fortifications and certain land localities were mostly recorded in sale contracts, donation documents or charges arising from conflicts related to inheritance and land estate boundaries.(5) This area was ruled by independent Croatian and Slavonian nobility, that is the families Desislavić, Berislavić, Svatački, Keglević and Zrinski who owned and controlled the area surrounding Bijela Stijena during the sixteenth century. There is evidence that the religious orders Ivanonci and the Templars were the legal owners of the donated land estates. There are also records of Castrum s. Johannis near Gornji Bogičevci and the fortification and estate Domus s. Johannis de Torna near the village Cage, as centres of these estates.
There are historical records of some other medieval fortifications that have not yet been proven by field research. They were probably made of timber so that nothing could be preserved or they were as completely destroyed as Cogolja near Benkovci and Raša near Bijela Stijena.
Bijela Stijena Fortification
Bijela Stijena is the best preserved medieval locality in the hinterland of Stara Gradiška and its first records go back to as far as 1369 in the name of Feyerkew castrum. Its remains are situated on the right bank of the Lješnica (Sloboština), close to the modern road Stara Gradiška - Okučani - Benkovac Pakrac. In the middle ages this area was part of the Velika Župa Svetačje district. The road leading from the village is flagged with stone taken from this historical locality. There is a wide spiral road from the foot of the hill to the entrance of the castle on the forested hill ridge. Whoever wanted to enter the fortification, had to go round the whole circle, which was a serious obstacle to possible invaders and an additional defensive precaution for the defenders and inhabitants of this fortified settlement. It is recorded in documents as a market centre (oppidum). The architectural remains are covered with vegetation and can only be seen from the immediate vicinity.
The town had a quadrilateral ground-plan with two round keeps. The area in front of the entrance was in the form of a horse-shoe plateau, and the walls that have survived consist of broken stone and linking material. The outside surface of the fortification is coated with harshly dressed stone. The fortification probably went through various modifications in the past, which can be seen in the preserved part of the entrance tower, that has been renovated using large bricks. (6)
Historical sources have records of the fortification under different names: Feyerkew castrum - 1369, Belazthena - 1475 and Pallestina - 1687.(7) The last name was probably recorded as a mistaken geographical interpretation of west European pilgrimages passing through this area on their way to the Holy Land in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Apart from the fortification, there are also records of Bijela Stijena as a market centre so that it seems only natural that there were approximately fifty major and minor villages gravitating towards the fortification and in a way depending on the will of its owners. Records of these villages appear until the 1630s when danger of invasion by the Turks became inevitable. The Svetački (Tibiltović) family owned Bijela Stijena for years and it was their main property. King Matija Korvin donated the fortification to Vuk Gregurević in 1476 and the next owner was Franjo Berislavić - Grabarski. At the time when Turkish raids on Slavonian territory were expected, the landlord of Bijela Stijena was the Croatian governor, Petar Keglević. Due to the impending danger from the Turks, at a meeting in Gratz in 1437, the representatives decided to reinforce Bijela Stijena, at that time owned by the Zrinski family, with infantry units and to provide them with gunpowder. King Ferdinand fulfilled this demand personally, since Bijela Stijena had great defensive significance. Historical documents prove that, at the same time, desperate appeal.s for help were sent from the fortification. Petar Keglević informed King Ferdinand of a large number of refugees who had arrived at the fortification from the area of Gradiška. Plague broke out in the besieged town and a larQe number of Croatian detenders died. This threatened to turn the town and its surroundings into easy prey, which could be taken without a fight by the Turkish army, unless the infection stopped. According to Keglević's report, the Turks were waiting for that moment and meanwhile spent their time plundering the surrounding unprotected villages. The promised military help obviously did not arrive, since the Turks devastated the whole area after long military preparations. Ulama-beg entered Bijela Stijena in 1543 and established a permanent Turkish unit there which attacked and plundered the neighbouring, still unconquered, Croatian areas. Petar Erdedy conquered the fortification in 1685 and the whole area was finally liberated in 1691.(8)
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