Ćele Kula | Museums of Serbia

Few are those who haven't visited at least once in their lives, during their school days, one of the saddest but also most bizarre monuments in the world. It is the Ćele-kula Memorial Museum, an atypical tower of a cubic shape, whose walls are embedded with over 950 human skulls instead of bricks and stones.

It happened after the famous Battle of Čegar in 1809 when, as a reprisal against the rebellious population, the Turkish commander of Niš, Hurşid-pasha, decided to show the rebellious Serbs the fate of those who rise against the Ottoman Empire.

The brutal revenge involved beheading the slain Serbian soldiers and embedding their heads into the four walls of the tower using lime and sand. Stripped of their skin, the skulls were arranged in fourteen rows, facing outward, creating a horrifying sight for any passerby. To enhance the symbolism, the tower was built right next to the road leading to Istanbul, once known as the Istanbul Road and now Bulevar Dr Zorana Đinđića, as a warning to all Balkan nations.

The peculiarity of Ćele-kula influenced the Turkish commanders in Niš in the following years to insist on the demolition of this barbaric monument. However, due to the majority Turkish population, it was never carried out.

Paradoxically, the Turks unintentionally did a service to the Serbian people as Ćele-kula was preserved and protected from oblivion. Furthermore, apart from a few travel accounts, there are almost no written records about it. The man who first informed Europe about the existence of this horrific monument was the French poet Alphonse de Lamartine.

Many years passed before Ćele-kula was designated as a historically significant monument worthy of mention and protection. This happened only after the liberation of Niš in the late 19th century when a chapel dedicated to the fallen soldiers was erected next to the tower.

In the meantime, the tower succumbed to the ravages of time and significantly deteriorated. This, however, was also influenced by the Serbian population who, out of humane and Christian reasons, secretly removed the skulls from the walls and buried them in the ground according to Serbian customs.

Therefore, today Ćele-kula houses only "about" 58 skulls, preserved and protected from further decay. The terrifying structure has been transformed into a memorial museum that attracts tens of thousands of tourists or passersby each year. The central position in the tower, on a pedestal, is occupied by the skull of Vojvoda Stevan Sinđelić, which was also once embedded in the tower.

Ćele-kula is part of the Niš National Museum and can be visited every day except Monday, from 9 am to 7 pm. Ticket prices are 200 dinars for adults and 150 dinars for children.