The Skull Tower (Cele Kula) was erected by the Turks at the beginning of
 the 19th century just after the Battle of Cegar, where Serbian 
insurgents suffered a defeat against the Ottoman rulers. The Ottomans maintained control of the area and the commander of the 
forces ordered his soldiers to decapitate the heads of the dead Serbs, 
skin them and bring them back to Istanbul to show the Sultan. In 
Istanbul, the Sultan order the construction of Cele Kula, a tower into 
which the skulls of the Serbian war dead were mortared, as a reminder of
 the consequences of revolt against Ottoman rule. To this day you can 
still see wisps of hair on some of the skulls. The actual tower is 
inside a larger structure to protect it from the elements. Cele Kula was declared a Monument of Culture of Exceptional Importance in 1979, and is protected by the Republic of Serbia.











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