Vršac Castle, Medieval fortress in Vršac, Serbia

Vršac Castle is a fortress on Vršac Hill at 399 m, with a preserved donjon tower about 20 m high, rectangular in plan, with a hipped shingle roof and a wooden staircase leading to a first-floor entrance. A smaller stone wing with a wooden balcony and arched doorway stands to the left, and a low ruined wall extends right.

The fortress is first documented in 1323, when Vršac belonged to the Hungarian kings under the Karaš County. In the early 15th century King Sigismund strengthened it against Ottoman raids, and it later passed to Serbian despots Stefan Lazarević and Đurađ Branković. The Ottomans took it in 1552; in 1594 rebels seized it during a Serbian-Romanian uprising. Austria took the town in 1716, after which the fort lost its strategic value and was abandoned.

The name Vršac Tower comes from the town's Serbian name, recorded in this form from the 16th century; older Hungarian and Ottoman names for Vršac were Érdsomlyó and Şemlik. A local legend tells of the Serbian duke Janko Lugošan, called Halabura, who defended the fort during an Ottoman siege and killed the Ottoman aga in single combat; the town coat of arms shows a hand with a sword and a severed Turkish head above the tower.

The fortress stands at 399 m on Vršac Hill, above the town. The surviving donjon is about 20 m high, with its entrance on the first floor reached by a wooden staircase that could be removed in case of danger. The site is a protected monument; access follows the hill paths from Vršac.

The tower stands about 20 m high with a ground floor and three upper floors; remains of fireplaces and chimneys show the third floor was used for living. The entrance was on an upper floor, reached by wooden stairs that could be removed in case of danger. The fortress was renamed from Vršac Tower to Vršac Castle at a meeting on 4 March 2009.