A DILEMMA FROM THE AUSTRIAN CONQUEST OF NIŠ (1689): IS VOJNIK HILL ACTUALLY VINIK OR GOLA ČUKA?

The insufficient representation of certain topics in local history may cause the results of scientific research that was not thoroughly conducted to be accepted as indisputable facts. This has a disastrous effect on the discovery of new scientific truths, because compromised but entrenched opinions can mislead future researchers of a particular problem. Such is the case with the role of Vojnik hill in the Austrian conquest of Niš in 1690 and its identification with the Vinik hill represented by Radmila Tričković in the chapter “Niš u velikom ratu” (Istorija Niša I, 1983). As this research used a larger body of sources than R. Tričković used in her reconstruction of this event, we will point out the unsustainability of the Vojnik–Vinik theory, the clues that led R. Tričković to a wrong conclusion and provide a documented explanation of the theory about the identification of the toponyms Vojnik with Gola Čuka hill (Lisinac).