The story of Skull Tower

This quiet chapel shelters one of the most haunting monuments in the Balkans. In May 1809, during the First Serbian Uprising, Serbian rebels under Stevan Sinđelić were surrounded by a much larger Ottoman army on Čegar Hill near Niš. Knowing that he and his men would be impaled if captured, Sinđelić fired into the powder magazine of his trench, and the explosion killed him, his fighters and the Ottoman soldiers pouring in.

The governor Hurshid Pasha then ordered that a tower be built from the skulls of the fallen rebels, on the road into Niš, as a warning to anyone thinking of rebellion. It is 4.5 metres high and originally held 952 skulls set in 14 rows on its four sides. The last Ottoman governor of Niš, Midhat Pasha, ordered it taken down in 1861, but it was partly restored after 1878, and the chapel around it was built in 1892–1894.

Today 58 skulls remain; the one said to be Sinđelić's lies in a glass case.