Skull Tower of Niš

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Karak Norn Clansman
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Joined: Fri Oct 18, 2013 11:25 am

Skull Tower of Niš

#1 Post by Karak Norn Clansman »

This Skull Tower in Serbia was raised by Ottoman troops under general Hurshi Pasha following the crushing of a revolt in 1809, where the rebel leader Stevan Sinđelić in the face of certain defeat as enemies flooded the rebels' position, ignited his gunpowder store and blew his own forces apart rather than face impalement as a punishment for rebellion. The heads of the rebels were then collected by the victorious troops, skinned, stuffed and sent to the capital, and then sent back to Niš. All in all 952 skulls were built into the facade of a mortared tower as a monumental warning to the locals to toe the line and not challenge their distant ruler. Today only 58 skulls remain in the 4,5 m high tower, the gaping sockets remaining in their neat horizontal rows.

Note the horizontal wooden beams, reminiscent of the strengthening horizontal brick or stone bands which occur at regular intervals in Medieval castle walls, inclduing in Constantinople's iconic Theodosian city walls.

Sharing here in case someone gets inspired for some modelling scenery creation!

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Prince of Spires
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Re: Skull Tower of Niš

#2 Post by Prince of Spires »

Like GW just stuffing skulls on every available surface. It goes to show that everything we can think of has already been done somewhere. And that reality is often just as weird as fantasy.
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SpellArcher
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Re: Skull Tower of Niš

#3 Post by SpellArcher »

Karak Norn Clansman wrote:All in all 952 skulls were built into the facade of a mortared tower as a monumental warning to the locals to toe the line and not challenge their distant ruler.
I'm reminded of a line from Braveheart:

"It did not have the effect Longshanks intended."
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Karak Norn Clansman
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Re: Skull Tower of Niš

#4 Post by Karak Norn Clansman »

Hehe, true, both of you!
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