The Greatest Stories Never Told

On the forty-second page of “The Greatest Stories Never Told: 100 Tales from History to Astonish, Bewilder, and Stupefy” author Rick Beyer wrote (emphasis & hyperlinks added):

1683—The siege that gave birth to the croissant

An invading Turkish army provides the inspiration for a breakfast delicacy.

The croissant is not French—it was first baked in Austria. And its shape is anything but an accident. The popular pastry dates back to 1683. In that year an army of more than a hundred thousand Ottoman Turks was besieging the city of Vienna. They surrounded it for months, and residents inside the stout walls began to wonder if each day would be their last.

When the Turks tried tunneling under the walls, bakers working through the night heard the digging sounds and raised the alarm. This early warning prevented the Turks from breaching Vienna's walls and helped save the city. Eventually an army under Polish King John III reached Vienna and drove the Turks away.

The bakers celebrated the end of the siege in a remarkable way. They copied the crescent moon from their enemy's flag and turned it into a commemorative pastry. It was called a Kipfel (German for "crescent") and it honored a victory that might never have happened but for the bakers themselves.

This book is available for purchase from:

• Powell's Books
• Amazon.com
• Barnes & Noble