Devils and Skulls, Alien Eggs, and Local Hidden Gems

Skulls, Sausage, Rugs, and Gibanica

We started today off with a nice and morbid morning history lesson. We piled into the minibus and headed to Pirot by way of Skull Tower. Skull Tower is a stone structure embedded with human skulls. It was constructed following the Battle of Čegar of May 1809, during the First Serbian Uprising. 

Serbian rebels under the command of Stevan Sinđelić were attacked by the Ottomans on Čegar Hill, near Niš. Due to poor communication and some bad leadership, no reinforcements were coming to help the rebels and Sinđelić knew that he and his fighters would be impaled if captured. So he detonated a powder magazine within the rebel entrenchment, killing himself, his fellow rebels, and many of the the encroaching Ottoman soldiers. 

Vizier Hurshid Pasha, the Ottoman ruler of Niš at the time, ordered that a tower be made from the skulls of the fallen rebels as a deterrent to others that may want to rebel. When originally constructed, the tower was 15 ft high and contained 952 skulls embedded on four sides in 14 rows. Due to erosion from the tower being uncovered until 1878 and due to the fact that Serbian families used to sneak to the tower and chisel out the skulls of whom they believed to be their loved ones so that they could give them a proper burial, there are only 54 skulls remaining in the tower today.

Our history lesson over, we headed back to the car for a day trip to Pirot. While I thought we were going to have time to actually explore this little city, the day was more for experiencing traditional Pirot goods and food that we would otherwise never know about (although as fascinating as they were, I would have preferred just a day in Pirot to explore). 

The first stop (and the one I really did enjoy), was a small village high up on the hill where we drove down some super skinny streets in an effort to get to a wonderful lookout over Jelašnica Gorge and a hydroelectric dam built using Tesla innovations. Is was beautiful out and this lookout was fantastic. 

Our second stop of the day was more for meat lovers than for Em and I. We stopped at the home/factory of Dalibor Tošić, who is famous for creating Pirotska Peglana sausage. This is a Flat or Ironed Sausage that is made only from animals (cow, sheep, and goat....although he does have a special one made of horse 😳) that live on the Old Mountain and eat the grass there. The sausage is prepared in a certain way and only sold in this town. Apparently Tošić’s sausage is so good that it’s won every sort of “meat award” out there. So if you’re a meat - sausage in particular - lover, you should come check this place out. For the men, this sausage is also known as “Serbian Viagra.”

The third stop for the day was the Pirot Kilim school/factory. Pirot kilims are traditional rugs made only by girls from this particular town. The skill and method used to make the rugs is passed down from generation to generation and hasn’t changed in 400 years, but it is becoming a dying art in modern times (back in the day 2,500 woman made a living making these, now there are around 30 working part time). The woman that runs the school is trying to garner more interest in the tradition. 

The kilims are unique because they are two sided (you can put side either face up or face down and its the same), they have a super tight weave, only one piece of wool is used per design, and the wool only comes from sheep that graze on the Old Mountain. The motifs that are in the kilims are used to symbolize good luck, good health, success, warding off of negative energies, etc. Most of the rugs are specially commissioned to combat various negative energies in someone’s home or to ensure a good job/fortune/marriage/paycheck, etc. While beautiful, and the history of this, interesting, I could have missed this stop and the sausage factory altogether and never shed a tear.

Our last “off the beaten path” spot for the day was the Kafana Brka, an ethos restaurant located a little ways outside of the actually city of Niš. The Kafana is about 30 minutes from Niš and sits halfway up the hill in the town of Jelasnica. Apparently, the restaurant is so delicious and well known that people from Skopje will travel two hours across the border to come eat there. 

Zejko and Louise ordered a variety of local Serbian dishes that were served family style for the group to sample. For Em and I, we got grilled chicken and trout since all the main dishes were some form of mammal or other. There is something called Gibanica that is a specialty of Serbia, but similar to Burek (which can be found throughout The Balkans region). Gibanica consists of a flaky pastry shell (like a philo dough) that is stuffed with either cheese (a feta variant), meat, or potatoes. The one in this restaurant was stuffed with cheese and fantastic. They called it “Pie”.

By the time we arrived back in Niš it was early evening so there wasn’t much to do but take a lovely evening stroll with Ann and Mary along the Nišava river bank, take some photos atop a possibility abandoned railway trestle, and get a night cap and dessert.

Devils, Alien Egg Sacks, and Three Countries in One Day

This morning we awoke early, packed our bags, and prepared to say goodbye to Serbia. Today, we were going to have been in three different countries by the end of the evening. 

Our last place of call in Serbia was Đavolja Varoš (Devil’s Town). Devil’s Town consists of rock formations described as earth pyramids or towers that were formed via heavy erosion of soil that had previously been the scene of intense volcanic activity millions of years ago. The erosion and formation of the pillars however, is a relatively new phenomenon caused by the deforestation of the area, which in turn, allowed precipitation to erode the soil. Many of the towers have little caps of andesite, which protect them from eroding further.

Devil’s Town gets its name partially from the natural springs that are located beneath the towers. There are two springs: Đavolja voda (Devil’s Water), with extremely acidic water (pH 1.5) and high mineral concentration (15 g/l of water), and Crveno vrelo (Red Well). The water from these springs run blood red, but are said to have medicinal properties if either bathed in or drunk in minute quantities. The way that the formations are, also allows for eerie sounds to emanate through the canyon when the winds blow. The water + wind + lack of vegetation + legends = why the locals hundreds of years ago thought this was a place haunted by the Devil.

There are also non scientific legends as to how Devil’s Town was formed. Two versions of the main legend are as follows: 

(1) It was said that a brother and sister wished to marry each other. Their parents and friends said “No! This is wrong”, but the couple wouldn’t listen. So the mothers went to the church, and the church said “No! This is wrong”, but the couple wouldn’t listen. So the church went to God, and God said “No! This is wrong”, and still the brother and sister decided to carry on with their wedding. So on the way to the Church for the ceremony, God turned the couple and all their wedding guests to stone...and that’s how the towers were formed.

(2) The area was inhabited by kind, peaceful, religious folk. The Devil was bored with their uneventful lives and decided to spice things up; he poisoned the water so that when people drank from it, they forgot they were related to one another. Then numerous brothers and sisters started marrying each other. A good fairy appealed to God to help and God responded by turning all the married siblings to stone.

At the entrance/exit to Devil’s Town we spent our last few Dinar on some local homemade blackberry wine and piled back in the minibus to head to Kosovo.

Kosovo is a the newest country formed out of ex-Yugoslavia. It declared its independence from Serbia in 2008 after years of infighting between the Albanian and Serbian populations that lived there. Now, very few Serbians live in Kosovo and about 3/4s of the countries in the world recognize them as their own country. Serbia considers Kosovo to be an Autonomous Providence of them and refuses to recognize their independence. This is one of the many reasons that neither country likes the other very much.

Our visit to the Republic of Kosovo consisted of driving through the border crossing to the town of Pristina, tooling around for just a few hours, and then continuing to drive out of the country to Macedonia.

Our only port of call in Kosovo was the capital city of Pristina. Pristina has the second largest Albanian speaking population in the world (Tirana in Albanian is number 1), a church dedicated to Mother Teresa, a Bill Clinton boulevard and statue, and a super interesting (architecturally) designed national library (the area others things as well, but this is all we had time to attempt to see). 

The Cathedral of Saint Mother Teresa was inaugurated on the 100th birthday of Saint Teresa and completed afterwards. It honors the Albanian born (although now her home is located in Macedonia) Saint. When construction on the church (one of the largest buildings in the city) began is sparked outcry from the Muslim majority due to the relatively small Catholic population in this Muslim country. It was built anyways.

Bill Clinton Boulevard and a statue dedicated to him is a little ways outside of the main city square. This is dedicated to the US President that helped the Albanians during the Kosovo war. Thus the Albanians love Clinton and the Serbians hate him. Em and I tried to make it to the statue but we did not have enough time in town to venture that far.

The last thing of note, that Em and I were able to view, was The National Library of Kosovo. This is a super weirdly designed building that looks like a metal cage wrapped around jutting bricks, with some alien egg sacks on top. The building was designed by Croatian architect Andrija Mutnjaković, and is the subject of much controversy. Mutnjaković said that the building was supposed to be a mix between Byzantine and Islamic architectural forms. Some believe it was supposed to represent different things from both the Serbian and Albanian cultures and serve as a peace offering. Whatever the real reasons, the building is definitely weird and you either like it, or hate it, visually.

Our short two hour stop went by quickly and we all piled back in the minibus to finish transversing the country on our way to Skopje, Macedonia.

We arrived in Skopje later in the evening and really only had time for a quick stroll through the pedestrian lanes and some dinner before the day was done.