The Battle of Čegar
The Serbian Despotate fell under Ottoman rule in 1459, and this occupation lasted until the First Serbian Uprising in 1804. Five years after the uprising began, the leader of the Serbian insurgents, Karađorđe Petrović, expressed his desire to restore Old Serbia, including Niš as part of it. For this reason, the Serbian insurgents, led by commander Miloje Petrović, advanced towards southern Serbia. They reached Niš on April 27, 1809, and there they built six fortifications, the largest of which was at Čegar.
This fortification was managed by Resava vojvoda Stevan Sinđelić, while the Ottomans were led by Hurshid Pasha.
Vojvoda Miloje Petrović wanted to preempt the Turks by immediately taking Niš, but the other vojvodas did not accept this. The Turks took advantage of this and, receiving reinforcements of 20,000 soldiers, attacked the Serbian army on May 31, 1809.
The battle lasted all day, and the Turks attacked five times. Each time, the Serbian army defended itself, but the sixth attack was decisive. Sinđelić’s fortification was supposed to be supported by soldiers from other Serbian fortifications, but in the end, the vojvoda was left alone. When he saw that a turnaround in favor of the Serbs would not happen, Vojvoda Sinđelić ran to the powder magazine where the ammunition was stored, fired his pistol, and thus ignited both himself and his soldiers.
The Skull Tower
At that time, almost all Serbian soldiers (about 3,000) and even four times more Turks died at Čegar. To justify the loss, Hurshid Pasha ordered the skins from the heads of Serbian soldiers to be flayed, stuffed with straw, and sent to Constantinople. With this, he wanted to show that despite the heavy losses, the Turks were not humiliated.
From the remaining skulls, he ordered a tower to be made, which would stand by the road as revenge on the Serbs for the defeat at Čegar and to scare people passing by on their way to Constantinople.
Today, only 59 of the original 952 skulls remain on the tower. One skull is believed to have been Stevan Sinđelić’s, as it was found at the top of the tower.
Niš was liberated from the Turks in 1878, and until then, the tower was uncovered. That same year, it was fenced off and covered to protect it from decay. The chapel that still exists today was built around the tower in 1892.
Glossary:
Ćele Kula (Turkish: kelle kulesi) means “tower of skulls” in Turkish.
Čegar in Turkish means “horseshoe”; it refers to a funnel-shaped depression where water collects after rainfall and river flows begin.
Šanac (English: sconce, German: Schanze) is a type of field fortification intended as a defensive combat means. Fortifications of this type were first used during the Middle Ages.