Pleven is a town-pantheon located in the central region of the Danubian Plain, a historical place of Moesia. It is enveloped by the limestone hills called Pleven heights. It is 174 kilometers northeast of Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, 50 kilometers south of the Danube, and 320 kilometers west of the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast.Keep reading
Being located in the heart of the Danubian Plain in Northern Bulgaria, Pleven has developed into a big economic, administrative, political, transport, and cultural center. The river Vit runs near the town, while the small Tuchenitsa River (known in Pleven as Barata, meaning “The Streamlet”) runs across it.
The climate is moderate continental, having very cold winters (reaching –15°C) and really hot and dry summers (moving up to +35- 44°C) .
The most primitive traces of human inhabitation in the region date back to the Neolithic Age, the fifth millennium BC. During those times, the Thracians settled on the place named Storgoziya, which is now the site of today’s Park of Kailuka in Pleven. They were there for thousands of years. After the barbarians destroyed it, the Slavs reconstructed it and called it Kamenets.
Another settlement to its north was later established, with the name Pleven (from the word “Plevel”, meaning weed). Years passed and the Kamenets and the Pleven settlements unified forces. This unification was first documented in a contract by the Hungarian King Stephen V in 1266 under the name of Pleven. This was the time when the Magyars occupied it.
After the twelfth century, the town evolved as a trade center and a craftsman’s arena. The town put up a violent struggle with the Turkish intruders, which is the reason for its destruction. Its inhabitants were either killed, thrown out, or converted to Islam after its downfall. Pleven was occupied and placed on fire in 1596 by Wallachian Voivoda Mihail Vityaz (Hrabri), the Courageous.
At the onset of the new era, the area became a division of Moesia, a Roman province. It later on developed into a citadel. One of the most precious archaeological shrines in Bulgaria from this period is the Early Christian basilica found near the modern city. It is believed to be from the fourth century.
At some stage in the Ottoman regime, Pleven or Plevne, conserved its Bulgarian facade and civilization. Many schools, churches, bridges, and roads were constructed at the time of the Bulgarian National Revival. The first secular school was opened in 1825, and in 1840, the first girls’ school in Bulgaria was started, followed by the first boys’ school one year after.
During the seventeenth to the eighteenth centuries, the population of Bulgaria in the region grew up in number, and owned the crafts and trade industries. The town started to expand its cultural life, too. The town grew in popularity in Anatolia and on the Balkan Peninsula for its sales of sheep and cattle.
Pleven was where Vasil Levski, the Bulgarian National hero, established the first revolutionary committee on May 6, 1869. This was part of his national revolutionary network. In 1871, Pleven had 3,101 houses and a population of 17,000. The citizens of Pleven participated in the destabilization of Hristo Botev and Philip Totyu’s armed volunteers.
The Russian-Turkish War of Liberation (1877-1878) gave Pleven its popularity after the Russian troops forced to enter the Danube River. Over 40,000 Romanians and Russians and an unidentified number of civilians and Turks died in this war. Inadvertently, because of Plevna’s fall, the northern part Bulgaria was liberated.
The town quickly stood up after the Liberation. The new railway lines greatly helped in making it happen fast. Today, Pleven is the seventh biggest town in Bulgaria.
The population in Pleven is around 137,000, with 94% Bulgarians and 5% Roma, while other ethnic groups represented contribute roughly 1%.
Over 90% of the people in Pleven are Eastern Orthodox Christians, 5% of the population are Muslims, and another 5% of the citizens are Roman Catholic by religion, a considerable number compared to the other Bulgarian cities.
The St Nicholas Church (1834), the St Paraskeva Church (1934), and the Holy Trinity Church, built in 1870 are the three Eastern Orthodox Churches in Pleven. The construction of the Our Lady of Fatima Church, which is a huge Roman Catholic Church, began in 2001. To serve the needs of the Muslim population, a mosque was also built in the town, as well as a Methodist church, situated on the spot of the former puppet theatre.
Almost all the landmarks found in Pleven speak about the Russian-Turkish War of Liberation. Approximately 200 monuments remind the present generation of the battles that took place here. In the heart of the town is the Mausoleum-Charnel House devoted to the Romanian and Russian soldiers killed during the war.
Pleven was the center of metal working, oil processing, machinery construction, food, and light industries during the Socialist period. Pleven saw itself in crisis after 1989. Most of the major businesses closed and most workers practically stopped working. Consequently, in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Pleven gradually recovered and began developing light industries such as store clothes and knitwear production.
Tourism also gained energy. Other economic sectors also improved when the year 2000 came. Unemployment rates fell from 17% in 2000 to 7.5% in 2005 and are continuously decreasing.
The international railroad, which runs from Sofia to Bucurest and all the way to Moscow also runs through Pleven. At the north of the city, the international motor way E 83 passes. The 14 trolleybus lines maintain the inner city transportation of Pleven. The trolleybus fleet is composed of 70 ZIU-682 trolleybuses.
Pleven is an important spot for sports in Bulgaria. Many celebrated Bulgarian sportsmen were born and trained in this place. One is Galabin Boevski and Tereza Marinova. The most popular sports school in the country may also be found in Pleven.
Pleven is prominent for its Kaylaka. It is where the relics of the Storgozia defense can be found. The Skobelev parks, on the other hand, is where the Pleven Panorama is located. It is the precise site of the encounter during the Russo-Turkish War.
Pleven also claims that its extreme climate makes it famous. The hottest summer temperatures in Bulgaria are mostly recorded here, and it is also extremely cold in the winters.