The
Battle of Demetritzes in 1185 was fought between the
Byzantine army and the
Normans of the
Kingdom of Sicily, who had recently
sacked the Byzantine Empire's second city,
Thessalonica. The Norman army advanced east and met the Byzantine field army under
Alexios Branas near Demetritzes (modern
Sidirokastro). A period of confrontation and virtual truce between the two armies followed, but on 7 November Branas launched a sudden attack on the Norman army and routed it. Pursued by the Byzantines, the surviving Normans fled to Thessalonica, which was abandoned without battle; the remnants of the Norman army fled to
Dyrrhachium on the
Adriatic coast, effectively ending the attempted Sicilian conquest of the Empire.