page_title: Novo Brdo Fortress
section_title: Towers
hierarchical_section_title: Novo Brdo Fortress / Layout / Towers
caption_attribution_description: English: Novo Brdo Tower with a cross.
context_page_description: Novo Brdo Fortress is a medieval Serbian fortress in Kosovo. Its ruins are located near the town of Novo Brdo, about 40 kilometres east of Pristina. The fortress was built in the late 13th century by king Stephen Uroš II Milutin of Serbia to protect gold, silver, iron and lead mines which were abundant throughout the area. Novo Brdo was famous for its silver. Together with the castles of Prizrenac, 12 kilometres to the southwest, and Prilepac, 13 kilometres to the southeast, which guard access roads to the fortress, Novo Brdo helped form a defensive complex overlooking the lucrative mining operations. Novo Brdo was at its height during the Serbian Despotate, when it was the most important mining area and second most important town in Serbia. A significant number of Saxon miners and a large Ragusan merchant colony lived within the town, which was ruled by a vojvoda, but also a governor, because it was the seat of an administrative unit of the Despotate.
  For its fortress and production of silver and gold, Novo Brdo has been referred to as the "Mother of all Serbian cities", a "mountain of gold and silver", and the "strongest fortification of Serbia".
context_section_description: Novo Brdo has eight towers – six in the Upper Town and two in the Lower Town:
  A rectangular tower at the eastern vertex of the Upper Town, the donjon of the fortress;
  A three-sided square tower at the northern vertex of the Upper Town, from which starts the northeast rampart of the Lower Town;
  A three-sided square tower at the northwestern vertex of the Upper Town;
  A three-sided rectangular tower at the western vertex of the Upper Town decorated with a cross made of dark red stone with an inscription – I-H К (А) – made of brick;
  A three-sided square tower at the southwestern vertex of the Upper Town;
  A three-sided square tower at the southern vertex of the Upper Town;
  A polygonal triangular tower at the northern vertex of the Lower Town; and
  A polygonal triangular tower at the southern vertex of the Lower Town decorated with three rose windows. The first window, with a diameter of 70 cm, is on the south side of the tower close to the eastern rim in the upper part of tower – it is very similar to the western rose window of the Ravanica monastery. Two additional windows are on the east side of the tower and are slightly smaller than the first; these windows resemble the rose window in the Ljubostinja monastery (north facade, western part, near the side apse).
caption: Tower with a cross
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