Ottoman siege bombards (the Urban tradition)

Timeline

1. 1452Foundry at Edirne (Adrianople) · ThraceThe Hungarian cannon founder Urban cast for Mehmed II at Edirne a super-heavy bronze mortar of about 762 mm caliber, firing granite shot weighing about 300 kg; it was among the largest-caliber guns in the world at the time and represented a major breakthrough in late-medieval artillery technology.
2. 1453Walls of Constantinople (Theodosian Walls) · Southeast EuropeOttoman forces deployed multiple large-caliber mortars to bombard the Theodosian Walls; after weeks of bombardment they breached key sections, creating gaps for infantry assaults, utterly ending the Byzantine Empire and proving to the world that artillery had become the bane of city defenses.
3. 1511–1520Ottoman Empire (Anatolia to the Persian/Egyptian fronts) · West AsiaSelim I systematically integrated artillery with Janissary infantry; at the Battle of Chaldiran in 1514 he routed Safavid cavalry with a combination of cannon and arquebuses, extending Ottoman heavy artillery from purely siege use to open battle and marking the maturation of the 'gunpowder empire' military system.