Turkish military hospital at the Skull Tower in Nis (1872-1878)

With a history that lasts for 146 years, the military hospital at the Skull Tower in Nis is one of the most esteemed medical institutions of the Army of the Republic of Serbia. However, in previous researches about it, it was not sufficiently emphasized that the hospital was, in the same place and with the same function, an inherited institution from the Ottoman era, which ended in Nis in 1878. In Serbian historiography, there are practically no works on this topic. This is exactly why we conducted the research of the history of this military hospital in the period under the Ottomans. In that way, we achieved the goals of our research: to establish direct connection between the Ottoman and Serbian military hospital (as well as the health practices that were carried out in both) and move the year when military health institution at the Skull Tower was founded deeper into the past. In addition, the research also led us to findings that challenge the established opinion in Serbian historiography, that in Nis during the last decades under the Ottomans there were no highly educated health personnel and that modern medicine was not practiced there during that time. To achieve all of the above, we used unpublished Ottoman archival materials, narrative sources and Ottoman press from the 19th century, as well as the works of various scientific formats by contemporary Serbian, Turkish and European authors.