The fortress city of Vidin (Bulgaria)
Three large Bulgarian cities are located on the banks of the Danube: Silistra, Ruse and Vidin. They all have a rich history, each of them is a river port and opposite each of them is the Romanian coast. For a long time, Romania and Bulgaria, divided by the largest river in Europe, were even connected by bridges. In 1952, the first interstate bridge was built between Ruse and Giurgiu, thus connecting the two socialist countries, Bulgaria and Romania. Many years later, in the two thousandth, three cities appeared, between Vidin and Calafat. Personally, I had to travel between these two states many times and cross the border through each of the three cities mentioned, as well as see all three. Today I will talk about the fortress city of Vidin, which, in my opinion, is the most interesting of them all in terms of fortification and history.

When you tell Bulgarians about Vidin, they wave their hands, saying, “What did you forget?” For them, not only Vidin, but also the northwestern part of Bulgaria in general, is the poorest region of the country, where the most gypsies live and where all the healthy residents left for Europe a long time ago. In many ways, the Bulgarians are right, in the sense that the region is striking in its neglect and the scale of depopulation resembles the consequences of a nuclear war. You drive along the highway from Sofia and the closer you get to Vidin, the worse things get: half-abandoned villages, the remains of enterprises that have long since stopped, unkempt fields, abandoned and rusting agricultural machinery. It’s hard for me to even imagine why everything is so sad in this part of the country. It seems closer to Western Europe, transport highways to Romania and Serbia pass here, the land is fertile, beautiful nature. But no! But let’s get back to Vidin itself. As already mentioned, this is a fortress city, founded in the Roman era on the site of the Roman fort Bononia. Later, the city was under the rule of the Ottoman Empire for almost 500 years until 1876 (Russo-Turkish War), when the city was liberated and became part of the Bulgarian Principality, while in accordance with the Berlin Peace Treaty of 1878, the fortifications of the Vidin city fortress were destroyed. It is noteworthy that only the Bulgarians liberated the city from the Turks, as the war with neighboring Serbia began. During the Serbian-Bulgarian War in November 1885, the Serbs tried three times to take Vidin by attack, but were repulsed by a weak Bulgarian garrison. Well, after World War II, Vidin began to actively develop as an industrial center of socialist Bulgaria. Petrochemical giants, a river port, a ferry to Romania were set up here, and a railway to Sofia was opened. Defensive walls. Previously, the walls stretched for more than four kilometers and all five gates were part of the defense system. But then, as mentioned, the walls were demolished after Vidin was liberated from the Turks. Only the gates remained, like this –


These are different gates, they are, of course, similar, but you can see the differences.

Or here is the third gate –

…and the fourth gate a little further –

Here and there, walls remain, which, despite the demolition work in 1878, have been partially preserved.

If you set a goal, then walking through the residential areas of Vidin, you will discover other traces of ancient bastions and walls. In varying degrees of security and accessibility –

The walls even stretched along the banks of the Danube and have survived to this day. In other words, the fortress city of Vidin was surrounded on all sides by several rows of fortifications, plus the Baba Vida fortress.

Bulgaria is not rich in fortresses. We can say that only two of them have been preserved normally: here, in Vidin and in Veliko Tarnovo. That’s all, there are no other fortresses worth noting in the country. The best preserved is the Baba Vida fortress.

Probably the only Bulgarian fortress in the classical European sense


In addition to the fortifications, Vidin is worth a few hours of leisurely stroll through its historical center. Wars and socialism did not spare the once beautiful European center, and in place of ancient residences and palaces, monsters of socialist realism such as this tower appeared.

Nevertheless, some interesting buildings remained –



In the old days, the city was a real Babylon of peoples and beliefs. As a legacy from the Turks, a large Muslim population remained (Bulgarians converted to Islam) and although during the socialist period there was an active struggle for de-Islamization, today about 10-15% of Viennese people profess Islam. There were also many Jews here, but some of them were killed during the war and the Holocaust, and those who survived already in the fifties left Bulgaria and emigrated to Israel. Vidin Orthodox Diocese –

Ottoman Mosque –

The saddest thing is the local synagogue, built in 1894, which has been in ruins for seventy years. In the city center, next to the city park, administration, cafes and restaurants. After the war, the socialist authorities did not seek to revive the Jewish community of the country and the city in particular, so they hurried to seize the synagogue for the benefit of the state and turn it into a warehouse. In 1970, a project to transform the synagogue into a concert hall appeared, work began, but the project was never brought to fruition. After the fall of communism, in 1990, the authorities returned the synagogue to the small Jewish community of Vidin. But the community, consisting of several hundred pensioners, had neither the funds nor the need to restore the synagogue. In 2017, the community decided to transfer the synagogue to the Ministry of Culture of Bulgaria, since they volunteered to restore it. But, as we can see, the year 2022 is in the yard and the window is still there.

Near the synagogue is a monument to Bulgarian Jews, most of whom survived the Holocaust thanks to Tsar Boris’s refusal to follow the Nazis’ demand and send his Jews to death camps in Romania and Poland.

The Danube embankment and the Romanian bank on the opposite side –

Previously, the city walls, demolished in 1878, passed here, and now the walls have been converted into flood barriers. Moreover, the local population uses this place for walks.

A small train station in Vidin –

The timetables do not shine with a wealth of choice

Well, we went to Sofia –

That’s it!

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