The fire of Skopje started on 26 October 1689 and lasted for two days, burning much of the city; only some stone-built structures, such as the fortress and some churches and mosques, were relatively undamaged.
[2] In 1689 the Austrian general Enea Silvio Piccolomini led an army to capture Kosovo, Bosnia and Macedonia from the Ottoman Empire.
During the Austrian-Turkish war (1683–1699), Austrian troops under the command of General Piccolomini penetrated in an unstoppable advance far into the interior of European Turkey and, after taking the fortress of Kaçanik, descended into the Skopje plain.
By order of General Piccolomini, Skopje was set on fire,[3] and the conflagration lasted two days (26 and 27 October); great many houses and shops were destroyed.
Some accounts of these events state that Piccolomini razed Skopje due to an inability of his forces to occupy and govern a city so far from his headquarters.