Gradska opstina Palilula

The battles for the liberation of Nis began in mid-December 1977, when the Ibar, Moravian and Danube divisions crossed the Serbian-Turkish border and took up positions northwest of the city, approaching it by five to eight kilometers. The Ibar division penetrated further south and cut the connection between Nis and Leskovac. Then, the Serbian army conquered Pirot and Bela Palanka, preventing the connection of the Turkish garrison in Nis with the troops in Sofia, and broke out on the mountain Selicevica, closing the ring around Nis and on the south side.

The total Serbian forces had 15,000 soldiers and 102 cannons, and the Turkish 5,000 soldiers and 267 cannons. The main attack on Nis, under the command of Colonel Jovan Belimarkovic, was carried out by the Sumadija Corps from the slopes of Mount Selicevica, which was considered the “gateway to Nis”, because the southern part of the city was the weakest fortified by the Turks.

Already in the first attacks, Markovo kale, Ćurlinski visovi, and Velika kamara were conquered, and with the strong action of artillery and the cooperation of other units, the last fortifications on Gorica were endangered. At the same time, Serb forces, under the command of Colonel Milojko Lesjanin, attacked from the northwest.

When the first grenades began to fall on the city, the Turkish elders of the city, after some tact and hesitation in anticipation of help, finally signed the Convention on the Surrender of Nis. In liberated Nis, at the handover of the city, the Serbian flag was set up by Todor P. from Nis at the Istanbul Gate of the Nis Fortress. Stankovic, a member of the secret liberation committee.

120 Serbian soldiers were killed and 791 were wounded in the battle for Nis. Prince Milan Obrenović, the supreme commander of the Serbian army, solemnly entered Niš, just a few days after his release. The struggles for the liberation of other parts of southeastern Serbia were soon successfully ended, and Prince Milan and the Serbian government continued their diplomatic activity to annex the newly liberated areas to Serbia, which was done at the Berlin Congress.

Prince Milan will then buy a house in Nis, and at his request, Nis will be the place of frequent sessions of the National Assembly (especially in the period 1883-1886) and the Serbian government and thus become the second capital of Serbia.