The tower was built in 1809 by the Ottoman Empire as a warning to the local population. The Ottomans were sending a message to the Serbs about what would happen if they revolt.
The Ottoman government built the tower to terrorize and control the Serbian people. It was a way to frighten the people by displaying the skulls of the rebels who had died.
It actually inspired some people. The men who died were seen as heroes.
952 skulls were placed in the original Skull Tower. You can see in the photos that many have broken apart or fallen out completely.
Wabi Sabi is a Japanese way of life. I love the concept. We walked around for quite awhile in Belgrade and weren’t able to find a restaurant. Then we came across this sushi place. It was amazing!
More than a dozen countries affiliated with NATO were part of the bombings that destroyed these buildings. They said it was done to stop the Kosovo War.
Under the banner of NATO, more than a dozen countries were part of the bombings which they say was aimed at stopping the Kosovo War.
The air strikes lasted from March 24, 1999 to June 10, 1999. No one knew where the next bomb would hit.
I was going to write about it myself but I can’t possibly do it justice.
“On the banks of the Danube River in Budapest, not far from the Hungarian Parliament building, sit sixty pairs of old-fashioned shoes, the type people wore in the 1940s. There are women’s shoes, there are men’s shoes and there are children’s shoes. They sit at the edge of the water, scattered and abandoned, as though their owners had just stepped out of them and left them there.
If you look more closely, you see that the shoes are rusted, made of iron and set into the concrete of the embankment. They are a memorial and a monument to the Hungarian Jews who, in the winter of 1944-1945
During that autumn and winter, after the Germans had toppled the government of Miklos Horthy bringing Ferenc Szálasi and his fascist, violently antisemitic Arrow Cross Party to power, the Arrow Cross introduced a reign of terror in Budapest. The Arrow Cross militiamen ran amok in the streets of Budapest, beating, plundering, and killing Jews publicly. Thousands of Jews were murdered all over the city. Shooting the Jews into the Danube was convenient because the river carried the bodies away. Often, the Arrow Cross murderers would force their terrified Jewish victims to remove their shoes before shooting them into the Danube. Shoes, after all, were a valuable commodity during World War II.”
When you’re there- it’s just so devastatingly sad. A truly powerful memorial.
marschmadness 