Attack on Antalya (1472)

In August, the Crusaders arrived in Antalya. They began forming a plan under which the Venetian general, Vittore Soranzo, would lead ten ships to enter Antalya's port. The other general, Stefano Malipiero, was to attack the city using land forces. Early in the morning, Soranzo's ten galleys, composed of three each from Venice, Papal, and Naples, and one from Rhodes, simultaneously attacked the chains protecting the harbor. The Crusaders then began plundering the market and burning the warehouses in the harbor.^[4][5][6]

The Crusaders' land forces then launched an attack on the city. However, having discovered that the ladders were too short to climb and the ropes and grappling hooks were inadequate, the Crusaders retreated under heavy arquebus fire.^[7] Another source mentions that the Crusaders managed to storm the first wall only to discover that there was a second wall protecting the city, which the Crusaders attempted to storm, but the Ottoman garrison defended themselves. The Crusaders lost the momentum of the attack and decided to retreat.^[8]

The Crusaders, lacking heavy artillery to breach the walls, had their war council decide it was futile to continue the attack. The next day the Crusaders retreated after laying waste to the suburbs.^[9][10]

• Abercrombie, Gordon Ellyson (2024). The Hospitaller Knights of Saint John at Rhodes 1306-1522.

• Setton, Kenneth Meyer (1976). The Papacy and the Levant, 1204-1571, Volume 2.

• Hammer, Joseph von (1827). History of the Ottoman Empire largely from previously unused manuscripts and archives, Vol II (in German).