Zandan Tower (Macedonian: Зандан куле) is a former Ottoman defensive and prison tower in Bitola, North Macedonia. It was built in the early 17th century by Haci Mahmud Efendi, the mufti of Bitola, on a private homestead next to a multi-family housing block in which Turkish and Albanian residents lived. It is accessed via a staircase leading up to the double door made of thick oak wood on the tower's south façade.[1][2] Standing 10.95 m (35.9 ft) in height, its exterior walls are all roughly 1 m (3.3 ft) thick or greater. The interior is made up of three stories, with the upper floor setup as a dwelling.[3]
The tower is connected with the Nakşbendi order of Sufism. Its builder, also known as Hırka Baba, lived a secluded spiritual life with his family on this homestead. It became a place of pilgrimage for a period after his death in 1628. During the Ilinden Uprising of 1903, the tower was used as a prison for rebels, from whence the tower gets its present name (zandan meaning dungeon in Macedonian).[3]
Today, Zandan Tower is within the yard of the school "Stefan Naumov".[4] It is listed as an Object of Cultural Heritage by the Ministry of Culture.[5]
- ^ Jordan Tasevski (1970). Bitola. Nasă kniga. p. 76.
- ^ Vladimir A. Ivanovski (1970). Битолските затвори. p. 16.
- ^ a b Mihajlovski, Robert (2012). "The Seventeenth Century Ottoman Religious Architecture of Bitola/Manastir" (PDF). Патримониум. V (10): 291, 298–299. Retrieved 26 February 2023.
- ^ Dušan Hristov Konstantinov (1983). Bitola i Bitolsko vo Ilindenskata revolucija na makedonskiot narod, 1903. Zavod za Zaštita na Spomenici na Kultura. p. 274.
- ^ "Национален регистар на објекти кои се заштитно културно наследство". Ministry of Culture. 2012. p. 1.