The
Skull Tower (Serbian: Cele Kula; the Castle of Cegar),
situated near Niš is a unique monument in the world.
It was built by the Turks into which they set skulls of
the Serb commander Stevan Sindjelic and his men, with
the intention of frightening the Serb population. At the
end of the summer 1809, after the battle on Cegar Hill,
the skulls of the killed Serbian soldiers were built into
the tower, on the way to Constantinople. This was done
by order of the Turkish pasha Hurshid, the Turkish commander
of the town of Niš at that time. Rectangular in its
base, 3 meters high, the Skull Tower was built with 952
skulls. The message it was intended to convey was: all
Serbs who decide to stand in the way of Ottoman Empire's
interests will have premature deaths, like the Serbs of
Cegar.
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