Nebojsa Tower

This best preserved and biggest medieval tower of the Belgrade Fortress is located at the end of the north-eastern rampart of the Lower Town. The tower was built around 1460 at the very river bank and it protected the entrance to the medieval wharf. The tower has an octangular base, five levels and it is approximately 22 m high. On every storey there are six openings for cannons. This tower was mentioned in the sixteenth and seventieth century by Turkish and European travel writers as a White or Timişoara Tower. It got its current name after the biggest and most successfully defended tower of the Upper Town – Nebojsa Tower, which was destroyed after an explosion of a powder magazine in 1690. During the thirties of the eighteen century, at the time of Austrian reconstruction of the Fortress, it was completely reconstructed. The Turks used the Nebojsa Tower as a dungeon. Rigas Feraios, a Greek poet, patriot and champion of freedom of the Balkan people from Turks, died here in 1798. After the failure of the First Serbian Uprising, many Serbs were imprisoned at the Nebojsa Tower. During the turbulent times between 1914 and 1915, the tower was severely damaged. It was renovated in 1938. The last conservatory and restoration works were carried out in 1963.