As he laid beside the tower to shelter from the heavy sun, he came up with an appalling discovery.
'I discovered that the walls, which I supposed to be built of marble or white stone, were composed of regular rows of human skulls; these skulls bleached by the rain and the sun, and cemented by a little sand and lime, formed entirely the thriumphal arch which now sheltered me from the heat of the sun'. (Lamartine, quoted by Judah, Tim, in The Serbs: History, Myth and the Destruction of Yugoslavia, Yale University Press, 1997).
In Lamartine's days, the skulls numbered 952, standing three meters high. For decades, the skull tower (Cela Kula) was left exposed to the elements until it was roofed and fenced in 1878. Later, a church was added, becoming a national monument.
Cela Kula is a frightening testimony to one of the most sanguine episodes of the 500 year Serbian struggle against Turkish domination. In 1809, Serbian and Ottoman troops collided here. After the engagement, in which both sides suffered heavy casualties, the Turks had the heads of Serbian soldiers skinned and dispatched to Istambul as a war trophy. Soon, however, the skulls were back in Nis, and the Turks erected Cela Kula as a warning to all Serbian rebels still fighting their rule.
The skull tower in Nis has always been a 'reminder' of the sort of attrocities that men are capable of doing. Over the years, it has filled the Serbian's national conscience, a people in the South of Europe that so preciously treasure their freedom.
Throughout several years of exposure to the elements, and horror tales (like skulls being removed as 'souvenirs', but some others to receive proper burying as well) the original number of skulls has been reduced to less than sixty -albeit the number is still enough to appall the visitor.
Times ahead
Yet history abounds in such names as 'Auschwitz', 'Ypres', 'Hiroshima', 'Srebrenica' (and probably, in the future, the World Trade Center in New York City) whose sole mention raise fear and evoke bleak times.
These events have something in common: they all signaled turning points and clearly defined lines between before and after. Unfortunately, they have failed to prevent such attrocities to be repeated again. As Lamartine wrote: 'Let then preserve this monument! It will teach their children in the times to come how valuable freedom was to their forefathers and will serve as a constant reminder of the price that was paid for it'.
