The Skull Tower

Introduction

The Skull Tower, Cele Kula, is the heaviest site in Nis and the most direct confrontation with death in the Balkans. In May 1809 Serbian insurgents fought the Ottomans at Cegar Hill, about six kilometres from Nis. With ammunition nearly spent, their commander Stevan Sindjelic detonated the gunpowder magazine rather than surrender, and the force died where it stood. Afterwards the Ottoman commander Hurshid Pasha ordered the skulls of the fallen to be built into a tower as a warning to the population not to rebel again. The original tower held 952 skulls. The tower did not achieve its purpose. In Serbian national memory it became a symbol of resistance rather than a model of fear. In 1833 the French poet Alphonse de Lamartine visited and wrote the words still displayed on the wall of the museum: let the Serbs keep this monument, and it will always teach their children at what price a people's independence is bought. The tower is now enclosed in a small chapel, added in the late nineteenth century to protect what remains. Sources put the surviving skulls at 58 to 59, most set into the upper courses of the tower and visible at close range. A small museum beside it explains the 1809 uprising in trilingual panels, Serbian, English and French, and the monument draws more than 30,000 visitors a year. This is not a sight but a funerary memorial. Photography inside the chapel is restricted and permission should be asked at the door; dress and behaviour should be respectful and voices kept low. The chapel is narrow, so large backpacks are a bad idea. Cegar Hill itself, where the battle was fought, is a separate site with a monument and a view over the Nis valley, and a good place to understand the fight; but it is not the same place as the tower. The one thing to check before going is Monday: the site is closed, and walking or driving out only finds a locked gate.

✨ Highlights

🛈 Practical Info