Vidin

Vidin

 

Vidin is a regional and municipal town in northwestern Bulgaria, located along the Danube. It is the administrative and economic center of the eponymous municipality of Vidin and Vidin district. The NSI determines the population of the city at 41,583 inhabitants as of 2018.

Geography
Location
The city is located by the Danube. It is the first major port in the country along the river and the starting point of the Republican Road I-1, leading to the border with Greece at the Tower. 2 km from the city is the ferry complex, which in 2013 was replaced by a second bridge along the Bulgarian river, called "New Europe" (formerly known as "Danube Bridge 2" or "Vidin - Calafat Bridge") . Opposite Vidin is the town of Calafat, Romania. In the land of the town of Vidin is located the village of Novoseltsi, which has no land of its own.

 

History

Vidin is a city with a centuries-old history. It was created in antiquity. It originated on the site of the ancient Celtic settlement of Dunonia, where the Romans later built a fortress town called Bononia, which the Bulgarians called Bdin (connecting it with the verb bdya / i). During the Roman Empire it was one of the main cities of the province of Upper Moesia, covering lands from today's Northwestern Bulgaria and Eastern Serbia.

During the Second Bulgarian State, Tsar Ivan Alexander entrusted the management of the Vidin despotate to his son by his first wife, the Vlach Theodora Basarab Ivan Sratsimir, who crowned him king, who separated from the Tarnovo kingdom and created the Bdina (Vidin) kingdom, which later was conquered by the Ottoman Turks.

In 1444 Vidin was besieged by Vladislav Varnenchik, and in the 17th and 18th centuries it was conquered by the Austrians, attacked by the Hungarians and Romanians. Tsar Ivan Sratsimir has a sister Dorothea of ​​Bulgaria, married to Tvardko I; his wife is Anna Basarab, whose sister Anka Basarab is married to his first cousin and king of Dushan's kingdom, Stefan Uros V.

As part of the Ottoman Empire, Vidin was an important administrative and economic center (pashalak). From 1400 to 1700 Vidin was part of a buffer zone between the Ottoman state and Austria and was repeatedly conquered by Austrian troops.

In 1738 in Vidin the population was predominantly Turkish. For some time it was ruled virtually independently, when Osman Pazvantoglu was ruler of Vidin - from 1798 to 1807. In 1806 the former janissary Osman Pazvantoglu imprisoned several hundred lay people and priests from Vidin and the surrounding area, mainly with Bishop Kalinik in the church of St. Petka and stabs them before the altar. The city was the center of uprisings in 1773 and 1850.

The siege of Vidin during the Serbo-Bulgarian War of 1885 ended successfully for the Bulgarians, who repulsed all attacks of the Serbian army.

In the early years of the twentieth century, the city was known for its enduring support for the Democratic Party. At the outbreak of the Balkan War in 1912, 19 people from Vidin were volunteers in the Macedonian-Edirne militia.

Over the years it has been successively named: Dunonia (III century BC); Danube (Thracian); Dee; Bononia (Roman); Budin (VII century - the beginning of the X century); Bdin (X-XV c.); Bunin; Budim; Budin; Bodin (1569); Vidini (Greek); Vidin; Pidin; Bidin; Bodin; Kyradenum; Bishiters; Vedin (1669); Vidin (tour)

In 1950-1952, during collectivization, 57 families (173 people) from the city were forcibly evicted by the communist regime.

 

Destinations

Vidin Castle