durdevacHDR

Legenda o picokima is set in the time of the attack of the Turkish army on the Old town Đurđevac. As Ulama-beg encountered unexpected resistance and failed to defeat the defenders of Đurđevac with an army, he decided on a long siege with the goal of starving the army and the people that hid inside.

The Legend says that in the surrounded fortress the food had vanished. All that was left was one small rooster (picok [pitsɔk]). This could not feed the people, so an old woman suggested to the captain of the town that the rooster should be put in a cannon and shot into the Turkish Camp. Thinking that there was plenty of food in the fortress, Ulama-beg ended the siege and left the battlefield. As a curse, Ulama-beg calls the people of Đurđevac Picoki [pitsɔki], or "roosters".[1] At the end of this scene he says in Croatian: ”A vi tamo, pernati junaci, što picekima bojeve bijete, ime PICOKA dovijeka nosili! PICOKIMA vas djeca zvala, a unuci vaši ostat će PICOKI!” (English: ”And you there, feathered heroes, that fight battles with roosters, shall always carry the name roosters! Your children shall call you roosters, and your grandchildren will stay roosters!”).
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