Skull Tower

The Skull Tower is a tower that was built by a conquering Turkish army in the nineteenth century using the skulls of Serb rebels. Ćele-kula, located in Niš, in southern Serbia ,stood as a cautionary tale to remind the Serbian people of what happens to those who resist the Ottoman Empire. What used to be a gruesome monument is now a sort of reliquary that holds the bones of deceased revolutionaries. After Serbia fell to the Ottoman Empire in 1459, the Serbian people fought in several uprisings to gain their independence. 

The Turkish Grand Vizier of Niš, Hurshid Pasha, wanted to teach the Serbian people a lesson. He ordered the bodies of the rebels to be mutilated and decapitated. There heads were skinned, stuffed with straw, and sent to the Ottoman Sultan Mahmud II in Istanbul. When the skulls were returned to Niš, the Turks built the Skull Tower as a deterrent to the Serbian people so they always remember what happens to those who oppose the Ottoman Empire.

 The Turks embedded 952 skulls, into 56 rows and Sinđelić's skull was placed on the top of the 15 ft tower, The Serbs eventually won independence in 1830. In 1948, Skull Tower was declared Cultural Monument of Exceptional Immportance and came under the protection of the Socialist Republic of Serbia.

Gardoš Tower

Gardoš Tower or Millennium Tower, and also known as Kula Sibinjanin Janka is a memorial tower located in Belgrade, Serbia.

This Tower is a visual and historical symbol of Zemun. It was built and officially opened on August 20, 1896. to celebrate a thousand years of Hungarian settlement in the Pannonian plain. As part of Old Town core of Zemun, and also located in the middle of the Zemun fortress, Tower is protected both as Spatial Cultural-Historical Unit of Great Importance, and as a Protected Monument of Culture. 

It was part of the massive contruction effort which included buildings in Budapest as well as four millennium towers on four directions of  the world. The Tower was built on the ruins of the medieval fortress on Gardoš hill Taurunum, which barely survived today. According to the legend in this tower died famous Hungarian hero from the battles against the Turkish soldiers, Janoš Hunyadi, known as Sibinjanin Janko as well and after him the tower got its name. The Tower was built as a combination of various styles, mostly influenced by the Roman elements. Only angular towers and parts of the deffending wall are still left there. 

There is a magnificent and certainly unforgettable view of Zemun and Danube from the Tower. The Gardoš Tower is by itself an essential and dominant element of the Zemun silhouettes and the best view you can take from the Danube and the Belgrade fortress.

Bač, Serbia

Bač is a town and municipality in South Bačka District of Vojvodina, Serbia. The Bačka region was named after the town of Bač. The current name of the town was first recorded in 1094. Bač is one of the oldest towns in Vojvodina. The archeological research showed that an ancient Roman settlement existed in this area. Bač was first mentioned in 535 AD, in a letter written by Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian. In 873 AD , this town was mentioned as Avar fortress, inhabited by Avars and Slavs. 

The focal point of valorisation and outstanding significance is The Bač Fortress. This fortress is classified as a ''water town'', with a defence system adapted to marshy land. It consists of a fortified castle and suburb, located on the river Mostonga meander. A plane where the fortress is located is a significant archaeological site. Under the foundations of visible walls there had been a settlement from Neolithic period- six millenniums ago and that existed also through the Bronze age and Iron age. There are also Celtic traces and traces of life in the Classical period during III and IV centuries. The first building phase goes back to the period between 1338-1342 and the Hungarian King Charles Robert of Anjou. From the mid 15th century, intensive building activities start, adapting to new warfare techniques and reinforcing the southern boundary againts the Turkish invasions. In 1529 the Turks conquered the fortress. The Turks were using the fortress until the year of liberation, 1686. In 1704, during the Rakoczy rising, the fortress was blasted, never to be restored again. However, Bač fortress still remains the best preserved medieval fortress in Vojvodina. The ruins of the fortress in it's present state, consist of a base in the form of an irregular pentagon, four lateral, and one central tower 18 meters high, which is partially reconstructed.