Battle of Grobnik Field | |||||||
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Part of Mongol invasion of Europe | |||||||
![]() Mongols in Hungary and Croatia | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Mongols | Croats | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Batu Khan Kadan | King Béla IV of Hungary and Croatia | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
30,000 | Unknown | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
Almost entire army | Unknown |
The Battle of Grobnik field is a legendary battle that supposedly occurred in 1242 between the Croats and the Mongols (also called "Tatars") of the Golden Horde in the area below the Grobnik Castle in the present-day Čavle municipality in Primorje-Gorski Kotar County, western Croatia. The legend was recorded as late as the 16th century and was later a focus of an early romantic poem The Grobnik Field written in 1842 by Dimitrija Demeter for the 600th anniversary of the battle. Legend has it that, in a last-ditch struggle, Croats from all over the region gathered at the field and killed thousands of Mongols, who withdrew, never to return.