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Nebojsa Tower

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Today it represents the largest and best preserved tower of the Belgrade Fortress. It used to be located on the river bank, near the entrance to the old medieval port, which stretched from the outside of the northeastern rampart. The same name — Nebojsa — was used in the Middle Ages for the main tower of the Despot’s castle in the Upper Town. It was the strongest tower of Belgrade at that time, which surpassed all the other towers of the fortification. Only when the Upper Town tower was destroyed at the end of the 17th century, was the name transferred to today’s Nebojsa Tower, which was the closest in strength.

The Nebojsa Tower was built around 1460, in order to defend the entrance to the Lower Town port. It is a typical cannon tower, very similar to the Jaksic tower built at the same time in the eastern suburbs. This tower played a very important role in the defence system of Belgrade, especially during the Turkish siege in 1521, when its cannons defended the approach to the Lower Town from the east. The fall of the Nebojsa Tower signaled the rapid collapse of Belgrade’s defences, which the Turks finally conquered on 29th August 1521.

Nebojsa Tower has an octagonal base. It was originally about 22 metres high and its interior was divided by wooden mezzanine structures built into the ground floor and four upper floors. At first, it had a crenellated battlement on the top. There were five to six cannon openings on each floor of the tower, some of which have been preserved to this day in their original form. In the third decade of the 18th century, the Nebojsa Tower was thoroughly renovated and on that occasion the crenellated battlement was removed and a vaulted structure was built above the top floor. Additionally, most of the old cannon openings were widened and squared on the outside..

Until the end of the 18th century, the Nebojsa Tower defended the access to the Lower Town port and after that it became an infamous dungeon. In the spring of 1798, the Greek patriot Rigas Feraios — a fighter for the liberation of the Balkan peoples from the Turks — was imprisoned and killed there. Two years later, the Metropolitan Metodije of Belgrade was executed in Nebojsa Tower. After the collapse of Karadjordje’s uprising, many Serbs were slaves there and in the summer of 1815, Jevrem Obrenovic, the brother of Prince Milos, was detained among them.

The renovation of the Nebojsa Tower complex was completed in 2010, in cooperation with the Greek government who enabled its realisation with a large donation. After restoring the interior, the tower now has a ground floor and three upper floors, within which a small cultural centre has been built — an exhibition is located in the tower and part of the space in the riverside rampart has been turned into a multi-purpose hall. In addition to the history of the tower, the exhibition shows the life and work of Rigas Feraios and one section is dedicated to the First and Second Serbian Uprising.