Close up of the cannon (Čegar Monument)

The Battle of Čegar was an engagement in the First Serbian Uprising against the Ottoman Empire.
On May 31, 1809, the most prominent trench on Čegar Hill, under the command of Stevan Sinđelić, was attacked by the Ottoman troops. The battle lasted the whole day.The Serbian soldiers from the other trenches cried out to help Stevan. But there was no help. When Stevan Sinđelić saw that the Ottoman troops had taken over the trench, he ran to the powder cave, took out his gun, and fired into the powder magazine. The ensuing explosion was so powerful that all of the surroundings were shaken, and the whole trench was caught in a cloud of dense smoke. Everyone that was in the trench was killed, as was everyone in the vicinity of it.
Afterwards, the Ottoman commander of Niš, Hursid Pasha, ordered that the heads of the killed Serbians were to be mounted on a Skull Tower to serve as a warning to whoever opposed the Ottoman Empire