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Skull Tower (Ćele kula, ; ) is a stone structure embedded with human located in Niš, Serbia. It was constructed by the Ottoman Empire following the Battle of Čegar of May 1809, during the First Serbian Uprising. During the battle, Serbian rebels under the command of Stevan Sinđelić were surrounded by the Ottomans on Čegar Hill, near Niš. Knowing that he and his fighters would be impalement if captured, Sinđelić detonated a powder magazine within the rebel entrenchment, killing himself, his subordinates and the encroaching Ottoman soldiers. The governor of the Rumelia Eyalet, Hurshid Pasha, ordered that a tower be made from the skulls of the fallen rebels. The tower is high, and originally contained 952 skulls embedded on four sides in 14 rows.
In 1861, Midhat Pasha, the last Ottoman governor of Niš, ordered that Skull Tower be dismantled. Following the Ottomans' withdrawal from Niš in 1878, the structure was partially restored, roofed over with a baldachin and some of the skulls that had been removed from it were returned. Construction of a chapel surrounding the structure commenced in 1892 and was completed in 1894. The chapel was renovated in 1937. A bust of Sinđelić was added the following year. In 1948, Skull Tower and the chapel enclosing it were declared Cultural Monuments of Exceptional Importance and came under the protection of the Socialist Republic of Serbia. Further renovation of the chapel occurred again in 1989.
As of , 58 skulls remain embedded in Skull Tower's walls. The one that is said to belong to Sinđelić is enclosed in a glass container adjacent to the structure. Seen as a symbol of independence by many Serbs, it has become a popular tourist attraction, visited by between 30,000 and 50,000 people annually.
The French Romanticism poet Alphonse de Lamartine visited the tower while passing through Niš in 1833. By that time, the skulls had already been bleached from exposure to the elements. "My eyes and my heart greeted the remains of those brave men whose cut-off heads made the cornerstone of the independence of their homeland," de Lamartine later wrote. "May the Serbs keep this monument! It will always teach their children the value of the independence of a people, showing them the real price their fathers had to pay for it." De Lamartine's account attracted many Western travellers to Niš. Skull Tower was also mentioned in the works of the British travel writer Alexander William Kinglake, published in 1849.
After the Ottomans withdrew from Niš in 1878, the Royal Serbian Army scoured the town and its surroundings in search of the missing skulls. One was found embedded deep inside the tower walls and sent to the National Museum in Belgrade. This was followed by the construction of a roof baldachin, which was topped off with a cross. This is how the structure is depicted in an 1883 painting by the realist Đorđe Krstić. In 1892, work commenced on the construction of a chapel that was to enclose the tower. The foundations of the chapel, designed by the architect Dimitrije T. Leko, were consecrated in 1894. A plaque dedicated near the chapel in 1904 reads: "To the first Serbian liberators after Kosovo."
The chapel was renovated in 1937 and a bust of Sinđelić was added the following year. In 1948, Skull Tower and the chapel were declared Cultural Monuments of Exceptional Importance and came under the protection of the Socialist Republic of Serbia. Further renovation of the chapel occurred again in 1989. As of , 58 skulls remain embedded in the tower walls. The one said to belong to Sinđelić rests in a glass container adjacent to the structure.
The Serbian poet considers Skull Tower to be emblematic of what he terms "Balkan horror". Drawing on themes from Serbian history, in 1957, composer Dušan Radić composed the cantata Ćele kula. Skull Tower is also the subject of the eponymous fourth cycle of Modernist poetry Vasko Popa's fourth collection of poems, Uspravna zemlja (Earth Erect), which was completed in 1971. The structure was featured on the cover of the Serbian rock music band Riblja Čorba's 1985 album Istina, with the band members' faces embedded in the tower walls. The cover was designed by the artist Jugoslav Vlahović.
An exhibition at the Military Museum in Belgrade contains a replica of the tower. In 2024, a group of anthropologists from Serbia began the forensic reconstruction of the faces of the remaining skulls; a DNA analysis of the skulls was not carried out as this would damage both the skulls and the tower. The project was funded with private donations from Serbia and several surrounding countries.
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