Pleven ( bg, Плèвен ) is the seventh most populous city in

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedon ...

. Located in the northern part of the country, it is the administrative centre of

Pleven Province Pleven Province ( bg, Област Плевен or Плевенска Област) is a province located in central northern Bulgaria, bordering the Danube river, Romania and the Bulgarian provinces of Vratsa, Veliko Tarnovo and Lovech. It is ...

, as well as of the subordinate Pleven municipality. It is the biggest economic center in Northwestern Bulgaria. At the 2021 census its population was 89,823. Internationally known for the

siege of Plevna The siege of Pleven, was a major battle of the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878, fought by the joint army of Russia and Romania against the Ottoman Empire. After the Russian army crossed the Danube at Svishtov, it began advancing towards t ...

of 1877, it is today a major economic centre of the Bulgarian Northwest and Central North and the third largest city of

Northern Bulgaria Northern Bulgaria ( bg, Северна България, Severna Bylgarija), also called Moesia ( bg, Мизия, ''Mizija'') is the northern half of Bulgaria, located to the north of the main ridge of the Balkan Mountains which conventionally sep ...

after

Varna Varna may refer to: Places Europe *Varna, Bulgaria, a city in Bulgaria **Varna Province **Varna Municipality ** Gulf of Varna **Lake Varna **Varna Necropolis *Vahrn, or Varna, a municipality in Italy *Varniai, a city in Lithuania * Varna (Šaba ...

and

Ruse Ruse may refer to: Places *Ruse, Bulgaria, a major city of Bulgaria **Ruse Municipality ** Ruse Province ** 19th MMC – Ruse, a constituency *Ruše, a town and municipality in north-eastern Slovenia * Ruše, Žalec, a small settlement in east-ce ...

Name

The name comes from the Slavic word ''plevnya'' ("barn") or from ''plevel'', meaning "weed", sharing the same root, and the Slavic

suffix In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns, adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can carry ...

''-en''.

Geography

Pleven is in an agricultural region in the middle of the Danubian Plain, the historical region of

Moesia Moesia (; Latin: ''Moesia''; el, Μοισία, Moisía) was an ancient region and later Roman province situated in the Balkans south of the Danube River, which included most of the territory of modern eastern Serbia, Kosovo, north-eastern Alban ...

, surrounded by low limestone hills, the Pleven Heights. The city's central location in Northern Bulgaria defines its importance as a big administrative, economic, political, cultural and transport centre. Pleven is away from the capital city of

Sofia Sofia ( ; bg, София, Sofiya, ) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain in the western parts of the country. The city is built west of the Iskar river, and ha ...

, west of the

Bulgarian Black Sea Coast The Bulgarian Black Sea Coast (), also known as the Bulgarian Riviera, covers the entire eastern bound of Bulgaria stretching from the Romanian Black Sea resorts in the north to European Turkey in the south, along 378 km of coast ...

and south of the

Danube The Danube ( ; ) is a river that was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire and today connects 10 European countries, running through their territories or being a border. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows southeast for , pa ...

. The river Vit flows near the city and the tiny Tuchenitsa river (commonly known in Pleven as ''Barata'', literally ''"The Streamlet"'') crosses it.

Climate

Pleven's climate is

humid continental A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers and freezing ...

. Winters are cold with snow: temperatures can fall below overnight. Springs are mild, with temperatures around . Summers are warm, and temperatures have exceeded on occasion. The average annual temperature is around .

History

Prehistory and antiquity

The earliest traces of human settlement in the area date from the

5th millennium BC The 5th millennium BC spanned the years 5000 BC to 4001 BC (c. 7 ka to c. 6 ka). It is impossible to precisely date events that happened around the time of this millennium and all dates mentioned here are estimates mostly based on geological an ...

, the

Neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts ...

Numerous archaeological findings, among them the Nikolaevo treasure found in

, evidence for the rich culture of the

Thracians The Thracians (; grc, Θρᾷκες ''Thrāikes''; la, Thraci) were an Indo-European languages, Indo-European speaking people who inhabited large parts of Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe in ancient history.. ...

, who inhabited the area for thousands of years. In the beginning of the new era, the region became part of the

Roman province The Roman provinces (Latin: ''provincia'', pl. ''provinciae'') were the administrative regions of Ancient Rome outside Roman Italy that were controlled by the Romans under the Roman Republic and later the Roman Empire. Each province was rule ...

, and a road station called

Storgosia Storgosia was a Roman road station and later a fortress, located in the modern Kaylaka Park in the vicinity of modern Pleven (North-central Bulgaria). It accommodated detachments of Legio I ''Italicas Novae (modern Svishtov) garrison. The s ...

arose near present-day Pleven on the road from

Oescus Oescus, Palatiolon or Palatiolum ( bg, Улпия Ескус, ) was an important ancient city on the Danube river in Roman Moesia. It later became known as ''Ulpia Oescus''. It lay northwest of the modern Bulgarian city of Pleven, near the v ...

(near modern

Gigen Gigen ( bg, Гиген, ) is a village in northern Bulgaria, part of Gulyantsi Municipality, Pleven Province. It is located near the Danube River, close to the place where the Iskar River empties into it, opposite the Romanian town of Corabia. ...

) to Philippopolis (now

Plovdiv Plovdiv ( bg, Пловдив, ), is the second-largest city in Bulgaria, standing on the banks of the Maritsa river in the historical region of Thrace. It has a population of 346,893 and 675,000 in the greater metropolitan area. Plovdiv is the c ...

). It later evolved into a

fortress A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...

. One of the most valued archaeological monuments in Bulgaria from the period is the

Early Christian Early Christianity (up to the First Council of Nicaea in 325) spread from the Levant, across the Roman Empire, and beyond. Originally, this progression was closely connected to already established Jewish centers in the Holy Land and the Jewish d ...

basilica from the fourth century discovered near the modern city.

Middle Ages

During the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

, Pleven was a well-developed stronghold of the

First First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...

and the

Second Bulgarian Empire The Second Bulgarian Empire (; ) was a medieval Bulgarians, Bulgarian state that existed between 1185 and 1396. A successor to the First Bulgarian Empire, it reached the peak of its power under Tsars Kaloyan of Bulgaria, Kaloyan and Ivan Asen II ...

. When

Slavs Slavs are the largest European ethnolinguistic group. They speak the various Slavic languages, belonging to the larger Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European languages. Slavs are geographically distributed throughout northern Eurasia, main ...

populated the region, they gave the settlement its contemporary name ''Pleven'', it was first mentioned in a charter by

Hungarian king This is a list of Hungarian monarchs, that includes the grand princes (895–1000) and the kings and ruling queens of Hungary (1000–1918). The Principality of Hungary established 895 or 896, following the 9th-century Hungarian conquest of the ...

Stephen V Stephen V may refer to: *Pope Stephen IV, aka Stephen V, Pope from 816 to 817 *Pope Stephen V (885–891) *Stephen V of Hungary (born before 1239 – 1272), King of Hungary and Croatia, Duke of Styria *Stephen V Báthory Stephen Báthory of Ecs ...

in 1270 in connection to a military campaign in the Bulgarian lands.

Ottoman rule

During the

Ottoman rule Ottoman is the Turkish spelling of the Arabic masculine given name Uthman ( ar, عُثْمان, ‘uthmān). It may refer to: Governments and dynasties * Ottoman Caliphate, an Islamic caliphate from 1517 to 1924 * Ottoman Empire, in existence fro ...

, Pleven, known as ''Plevne'' in

Ottoman Turkish Ottoman Turkish ( ota, لِسانِ عُثمانى, Lisân-ı Osmânî, ; tr, Osmanlı Türkçesi) was the standardized register of the Turkish language used by the citizens of the Ottoman Empire (14th to 20th centuries CE). It borrowed extens ...

, preserved its Bulgarian appearance and culture. Many churches, schools and bridges were built at the time of the

Bulgarian National Revival The Bulgarian National Revival ( bg, Българско национално възраждане, ''Balgarsko natsionalno vazrazhdane'' or simply: Възраждане, ''Vazrazhdane'', and tr, Bulgar ulus canlanması) sometimes called the Bu ...

. In 1825, the first secular school in the town was opened, followed by the first girls' school in Bulgaria in 1840, as well as the first boys' school a year later. Pleven was the place where the Bulgarian

national hero The title of Hero is presented by various governments in recognition of acts of self-sacrifice to the state, and great achievements in combat or labor. It is originally a Soviet-type honor, and is continued by several nations including Belarus, Ru ...

Vasil Levski Vasil Levski ( bg, Васил Левски, spelled in old Bulgarian orthography as , ), born Vasil Ivanov Kunchev (; 18 July 1837 – 18 February 1873), was a Bulgarian revolutionary who is, today, a national hero of Bulgaria. Dubbed th ...

established the first revolutionary committee in 1869, part of his national revolutionary network.

Siege of Plevna

The city (then mostly known as Plevna outside Bulgaria) was a major battle scene during the

Russo-Turkish War The Russo-Turkish wars (or Ottoman–Russian wars) were a series of twelve wars fought between the Russian Empire and the Ottoman Empire between the 16th and 20th centuries. It was one of the longest series of military conflicts in European histor ...

of 1877–1878 that Russian

Tsar Tsar ( or ), also spelled ''czar'', ''tzar'', or ''csar'', is a title used by East Slavs, East and South Slavs, South Slavic monarchs. The term is derived from the Latin word ''Caesar (title), caesar'', which was intended to mean "emperor" i ...

Alexander II held for the purpose of the liberation of Bulgaria. The joint

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

n and

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

n army paid dearly for the victory, but it paved the path to the defeat of the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

in this war, the restoration of Bulgaria as a state and the independence of Romania from the Ottoman Empire. It cost the Russians and Romanians 5 months and 38,000 casualties to take the town after four assaults, in what was one of the decisive battles of the war. The siege is remembered as a landmark victory of the

Romanian War of Independence The Romanian War of Independence is the name used in Romanian historiography to refer to the Russo-Turkish War (1877–78), following which Romania, fighting on the Russian side, gained independence from the Ottoman Empire. On , Romania and the R ...

, as on 28 November 1877 the Plevna citadel capitulated, and

Osman Pasha Osman Pasha (also spelled ''Uthman Pasha'' or ''Othman Pasha'') may refer to: * Özdemiroğlu Osman Pasha (1527–1585), Ottoman grand vizier * Bosniak Osman Pasha (died 1685), Ottoman governor of Egypt, Damascus, and Bosnia * Topal Osman Pasha (16 ...

surrendered the city, the garrison and his sword to the Romanian Colonel

Mihail Cerchez Mihail Cerchez Cristodulo (1839–1885) was a Romanian general. Biography Descended from an old Moldavian family, Cerchez was colonel in the Romanian Army during the Romanian War of Independence (1877–1878), and fought at the Siege of Pleven ...

In the ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' Eleventh Edition of 1911 J.H.V. Crowe concluded his lengthy entry on Pleven (transcribed as Plevna) with the memorable dictum: On the other hand, the siege of Plevna stands out among other countless sieges and military actions in the region because of its significance.

Modern history

The events of the Russo-Turkish War proved crucial for the development of Pleven as a key town of central northern Bulgaria. The town experienced significant demographic and economic growth in the following years, gradually establishing itself as a cultural centre of the region. The

Bulgarian Agrarian National Union The Bulgarian Agrarian National Union Bulgarian Agrarian National U ...

, a leading

interwar In the history of the 20th century, the interwar period lasted from 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939 (20 years, 9 months, 21 days), the end of the First World War to the beginning of the Second World War. The interwar period was relativel ...

party representing the Bulgarian peasantry, was founded in the town in December 1899. Prior to the Bulgarian

orthographic reform A spelling reform is a deliberate, often authoritatively sanctioned or mandated change to spelling rules. Proposals for such reform are fairly common, and over the years, many languages have undergone such reforms. Recent high-profile examples ar ...

of 1945, the name of the town was spelled Плѣвенъ (with

yat Yat or jat (Ѣ ѣ; italics: ) is the thirty-second letter of the old Cyrillic alphabet and the Rusyn alphabet. There is also another version of yat, the iotified yat (majuscule: , minuscule: ), which is a Cyrillic character combining a ...

) in

Cyrillic , bg, кирилица , mk, кирилица , russian: кириллица , sr, ћирилица, uk, кирилиця , fam1 = Egyptian hieroglyphs , fam2 = Proto-Sinaitic , fam3 = Phoenician , fam4 = G ...

Population

According to census 2021, Pleven has a population of 89,823 inhabitants as of December 2021.
/ref> The ethnic breakdown is 97%

Bulgarians Bulgarians ( bg, българи, Bǎlgari, ) are a nation and South Slavic ethnic group native to Bulgaria and the rest of Southeast Europe. Etymology Bulgarians derive their ethnonym from the Bulgars. Their name is not completely understo ...

among others. The number of the residents of the city reached its peak in the period 1988-1991 when exceeded 135,000. The following table presents the change of the population after 1887.

Ethnic, linguistic and religious composition

According to the 2011 census data, the individuals declared their ethnic identity were distributed as follows: *

: 95,386 (96.5%) *

Turks Turk or Turks may refer to: Communities and ethnic groups * Turkic peoples, a collection of ethnic groups who speak Turkic languages * Turkish people, or the Turks, a Turkic ethnic group and nation * Turkish citizen, a citizen of the Republic o ...

: 1,510 (1.5%) *

Gypsies The Romani (also spelled Romany or Rromani , ), colloquially known as the Roma, are an Indo-Aryan ethnic group, traditionally nomadic itinerants. They live in Europe and Anatolia, and have diaspora populations located worldwide, with sign ...

: 1,017 (1.0%) *Others: 489 (0.5%) *Indefinable: 422 (0.4%) **Undeclared: 8,130 (7.6%) Total: 106,954 In Pleven Municipality 112,414 declared as Bulgarians, 4626 as Gypsies, 3204 as Turks and 10,384 did not declare their ethnic group. Most Roma people in Pleven Municipality live in the village of Bukovlak ( :bg:Буковлък). An overwhelming majority of 90% of Pleven's residents are

Eastern Orthodox Eastern Orthodoxy, also known as Eastern Orthodox Christianity, is one of the three main branches of Chalcedonian Christianity, alongside Catholicism and Protestantism. Like the Pentarchy of the first millennium, the mainstream (or "canonical") ...

Christian. The Diocese of Nikopol, of which Pleven is part, is one of the two Roman Catholic dioceses in Bulgaria, and another 5% of the residents are Roman Catholic by faith, a significant number compared to other Bulgarian cities. Pleven has three Eastern Orthodox churches, the

St Nicholas Church (1834) that was constructed at the place of a chapel from the

, the St Paraskeva Church (1934) and the Holy Trinity Church, built in 1870 at the place of a church mentioned as early as 1523 and inaugurated by Exarch

Antim I Anthim I (, secular name Atanas Mihaylov Chalakov, ; 1816 – 1 December 1888) was a Bulgarian education figure and clergyman, and a participant in the Bulgarian liberation and church-independence movement. He was the first head of the Bulgarian ...

. , a new Eastern Orthodox church is being built in the Strogoziya quarter. The construction of a large Roman Catholic church of

Our Lady of Fatima Our or OUR may refer to: * The possessive form of " we" * Our (river), in Belgium, Luxembourg, and Germany * Our, Belgium, a village in Belgium * Our, Jura, a commune in France * Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR), a government utility regulato ...

began in 2001. A mosque also exists in the town to serve the needs of the Muslim population, as well as a

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's b ...

church that is situated on the site of the former local puppet theatre.

Economy

A major centre of oil processing, metalworking, machinery construction, of light and food industries in Socialist times. However, the late 1990s and early 2000s saw a revival of light industry and the development of branches such as knitwear and store clothes production. Tourism, which had attracted many people from the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

prior to 1989, and had experienced a slump in the following years, is on the rise again. In 2015, the unemployment rate in Pleven district was 9.2%. The most important economic sectors in Pleven are chemical, textiles and foodstuffs industries, the manufacturing of cement and glass, machine building, tailoring, agriculture, retail and services. The city has seen a number of major foreign investments in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Particularly noticeable is the mass construction of hypermarkets, with two

Billa Billa may refer to: Films *Billa (1980 film), ''Billa'' (1980 film), 1980 Indian Tamil film *Billa (2002 film), ''Billa'' (2002 film), 2002 Pakistani Punjabi film *Billa (2007 film), ''Billa'' (2007 film), 2007 Indian Tamil film, remake of ''Bil ...

, two

Kaufland Kaufland is a German hypermarket chain, part of the Schwarz Gruppe which also owns Lidl. The hypermarket directly translates to English as 'buy-land'. It opened its first store in 1984 in Neckarsulm and quickly expanded to become a major chain ...

, two

Carrefour Carrefour () is a French multinational retail and wholesaling corporation headquartered in Massy, France. The eighth-largest retailer in the world by revenue, it operates a chain of hypermarkets, groceries stores and convenience stores, which ...

(in construction- first one to open in MALL PLEVEN in 2011), DM,

Plus Plus may refer to: Mathematics * Addition * +, the mathematical sign Music * ''+'' (Ed Sheeran album), (pronounced "plus"), 2011 * ''Plus'' (Cannonball Adderley Quintet album), 1961 * ''Plus'' (Matt Nathanson EP), 2003 * ''Plus'' (Martin Ga ...

(in construction),

ELEMAG Elemag ( gr, Ἐλεμάγος) or Elinag Phrantzes () was, according to the history of John Skylitzes, the governor of Belegrada (modern Berat in Albania) for the First Bulgarian Empire in 1018, when the Byzantine emperor Basil II completed the By ...

METRO Metro, short for metropolitan, may refer to: Geography * Metro (city), a city in Indonesia * A metropolitan area, the populated region including and surrounding an urban center Public transport * Rapid transit, a passenger railway in an urba ...

, two LIDL stores, a

Praktiker Praktiker AG was a German hardware store chain which operated in Europe. It was based in Hamburg and opened its first store in 1978 in Luxembourg under the name bâtiself. Initially owned by ASKO, the chain became a division of Metro AG after ...

bauMax The Baumax AG (own spelling: ''bauMax'') was an Austrian chain of home improvement stores. It was founded in 1976 by Karlheinz Essl Sr. in the city of Klosterneuburg and operated more than 150 stores in Austria and several countries of Eastern ...

and a number of other hypermarkets being opened . The Pleven City Center and

Central Mall Pleven Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center (disambiguation), center of some place or (mathematical) object. Central may also refer to: Directions and generalised locations * Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa ...

were opened in 2008.

Transport

The international railway Sofia — Bucharest — Moscow runs through Pleven. The international road E 83 passes just north of the city. The national A2 Hemus highway Sofia — Varna is projected to pass south of Pleven. Over 90% of the inner city transportation in Pleven is maintained by trolleybuses. There are 14 trolleybus lines, and trolleybus network. The trolleybus fleet consist of ZIU-682 (1985–1988) and Skoda 26-TR Solaris trolleybuses, produced in 2014. A project for trolleybus routes extension is underway. When the extension is completed Pleven will become 100% covered by trolleybus transport.

Transmitter

Near Pleven, there is a large facility for medium wave and short wave broadcasting. Pleven medium wave transmitter, working on 594 kHz, uses as antenna two tall guyed mast radiators insulated against ground. These masts belong to the tallest structures of Bulgaria. Pleven TodorBozhinov October 2009 (3)

Main sights

Most of the sights of the town are related to the

. The monuments related to the war alone are about 200. Some of the more popular include the

St George the Conqueror Chapel Mausoleum The St George the Conqueror Chapel Mausoleum ( bg, Параклис-мавзолей „Св. Георги Победоносец“, ''Paraklis-mavzoley „Sv. Georgi Pobedonosets“'') is a mausoleum (ossuary) and memorial Bulgarian Orthodox ch ...

in honour of the many Russian and Romanian soldiers who lost their lives during the

and the

ossuary An ossuary is a chest, box, building, well, or site made to serve as the final resting place of human skeletal remains. They are frequently used where burial space is scarce. A body is first buried in a temporary grave, then after some years the ...

in Skobelev Park. Another popular attraction is

Pleven Panorama Pleven Epopee 1877, more commonly known as Pleven Panorama, is a panorama located in Pleven, Bulgaria, that depicts the events of the Russo-Turkish War, 1877-78, Russian-Turkish War of 1877–78, specifically the five-month Siege of Plevna (Pleven ...

, created after (and reputedly larger than) the

Borodino Panorama Franz Roubaud (russian: Франц Алексеевич Рубо, translit=Franc Alekseevič Rubo; french: François Iwan Roubaud; June 15, 1856 - March 13, 1928) was a Russian painter who created some of the largest and best known panoramic pain ...

on the occasion of the anniversary of the siege of Plevna.

Culture

The

Pleven Regional Historical Museum The Pleven Regional Historical Museum ( bg, Регионален исторически музей — Плевен), founded in 1953, is one of the largest museums in Bulgaria. The museum is situated in a two-story edifice near the centre o ...

is another popular tourist attraction, while the

Svetlin Rusev Donative Exhibition The Svetlin Rusev Donative Exhibition ( bg, Изложба-дарение „Светлин Русев“, ''Izlozhba-darenie „Svetlin Rusev“'') is a permanent art exhibition in Pleven, Bulgaria, including over 400 works of Bulgarian and forei ...

, situated in the former public baths, exhibits works by Bulgarian artists, as well as noted Western European art figures. The

Ivan Radoev Dramatic Theatre The Ivan Radoev Dramatic Theatre ( bg, Драматичен театър ”Иван Радоев”, ''Dramatichen teatar ”Ivan Radoev”'') is a theatre in Pleven, Bulgaria. Its edifice in the centre of the city was designed by an Austro-Hunga ...

is the centre of theatrical life in Pleven. A number of community centres (''

chitalishta A ''chitalishte'' (, . Derives from the verb "чета" - "to read" or "читател" - "reader") is a typical Bulgarian public institution and building that fulfills several functions at once, such as a community centre, library, and a theat ...

'') are also active in the city. Medical University - Pleven, one of the five medical universities in Bulgaria, was established in 1974, aiming to expand the horizons, size and reputation of the City Hospital, founded in 1865.

Sport and recreation

Pleven is often regarded as an important centre of sports in Bulgaria, with many noted Bulgarian sportspeople having been born and/or trained in the town, including

Tereza Marinova Tereza Moncheva Marinova ( bg, Тереза Мончева Маринова; born 5 September 1977 in Pleven) is a Bulgarian athlete who specialised in the triple jump. She was the gold medallist in that event at the 2000 Summer Olympics and a b ...

and

Galabin Boevski Galabin Boevski ( bg, Гълъбин Боевски, born 19 December 1974) is a Bulgarian weightlifter. He was born in Knezha, and was both world and Olympic champion. He was later suspended for eight years after failing drug tests. Boevski was ...

. The city hosts two

football club A football team is a group of players selected to play together in the various team sports known as football. Such teams could be selected to play in a match against an opposing team, to represent a football club, group, state or nation, an all- ...

Spartak Pleven OFK Spartak ( bg, ОФК Спартак) is a Bulgarian municipal association football club from the city of Pleven founded on 10 September 1919. It currently competes in the Second League, the second tier of Bulgarian football. The team's grea ...

and

Belite orli Belite Orli Pleven ( bg, ПФК Белите орли Плевен) is a Bulgarian football club from the town of Pleven, currently playing in the Regional Football Groups, A RFG Pleven, the fourth division of Bulgarian football. The team was d ...

, which have separate stadiums. Both teams play in the second Bulgarian league and haven't had any major successes in the past, although Spartak Pleven has been the first team for a couple of former Bulgarian internationals such as

Plamen Getov Plamen Tsvetanov Getov ( bg, Пламен Цветанов Гетов; born 4 March 1959) is a Bulgarian retired Association footballer, footballer who played as either an Midfielder#Attacking midfielder, attacking midfielder or a Forward (associ ...

is also a basketball team, a national championship winner in 1995 and national cup winner in 1996 (then named

Plama Pleven Plama Pleven (Плама Плевен) is a former Bulgarian oil refinery located near the city of Pleven. The facility was opened in 1971 as a state owned company. In 1996, Plama Pleven was privatized by the Sofia-based company Euroenergy, bu ...

). Other than that, the team is a regular first league participant. Pleven is famous for its

Kaylaka Kaylaka ( ) is a large park and protected area south of Pleven, Bulgaria, situated in a Karst valley. The park is spread over 10 km2 and is surrounded by sheer cliffs that suggest favourable conditions for rock climbing. The ruins of the R ...

(where the ruins of the Storgosia fortification can be found) and Skobelev parks. The latter is home to the

and is situated on the original location of the battle during the Russo-Turkish War.

Notable natives

Ilia Beshkov Ilia may refer to: Science and medicine *''Apatura ilia'' or lesser purple emperor, a butterfly *Ilium (bone) (plural: "ilia"), pelvic bone People * Ilia (name), numerous **Ilia II, the current Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia Places *Ilia, ...

, artist *

Detelin Dalakliev Detelin Dalakliev ( bg, Детелин Далаклиев) (born 19 February 1983) is a boxer from Bulgaria. He is competing in the Bantamweight (– 54 kg) division, and won the gold medal at the World Amateur Boxing Championships in Mil ...

, boxer * Dora Deliyska, classical pianist *

Lucy Diakovska Ludmila Lubomirova "Lucy" Diakovska ( bg, Людмила Любомирова Дяковска; born 2 April 1976) is a Bulgarian and German singer and television personality. She rose to prominence as one of the founding members of the all-fem ...

, singer *

Emil Dimitrov Emil Dimitrov ( bg, Емил Димитров) (December 23, 1940 in Pleven – March 30, 2005 in Sofia) was a Bulgarian singer, musician and composer. He was popular for his songs ''"Ако си дал" ('If you have given')'', ''"Моя стр ...

, singer and composer *

Silvia Dimitrova Silvia Dimitrova ( bg, Силвия Димитрова) is a Bulgarian icon painter. She won a place at the School of Applied Arts at Troyan at the age of 13. She graduated in 1989. She then studied icon painting in Sofia under the tuition of Geor ...

, artist * Dionisii Donchev, artist *

triple jump The triple jump, sometimes referred to as the hop, step and jump or the hop, skip and jump, is a track and field event, similar to the long jump. As a group, the two events are referred to as the "horizontal jumps". The competitor runs down th ...

athlete,

2000 Summer Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 (Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from 1 ...

gold medal A gold medal is a medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture. Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have bee ...

list * Svetlin Rusev, artist *

Slavi Trifonov Stanislav Todorov Trifonov ( bg, Станислав Тодоров Трифонов; born 18 October 1966), known as Slavi Trifonov ( bg, Слави Трифонов), is a Bulgarian TV host, musician and politician. Trifonov is mainly active i ...

, popular

showman Showman can have a variety of meanings, usually by context and depending on the country. Australia Travelling showmen are people who run amusement and side show equipment at regional shows, state capital shows, events and festivals througho ...

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

* Svetla Vassileva, publicist and blogger

International relations

Twin towns – sister cities

Pleven is twinned with: *

Agadir Agadir ( ar, أݣادير, ʾagādīr; shi, ⴰⴳⴰⴷⵉⵔ) is a major city in Morocco, on the shore of the Atlantic Ocean near the foot of the Atlas Mountains, just north of the point where the Souss River flows into the ocean, and south ...

, Morocco *

Brăila Brăila (, also , ) is a city in Muntenia, eastern Romania, a port on the Danube and the capital of Brăila County. The ''Sud-Est'' Regional Development Agency is located in Brăila. According to the 2011 Romanian census there were 180,302 pe ...

, Romania *

Bitola Bitola (; mk, Битола ) is a city in the southwestern part of North Macedonia. It is located in the southern part of the Pelagonia valley, surrounded by the Baba, Nidže, and Kajmakčalan mountain ranges, north of the Medžitlija-Níki ...

, North Macedonia *

Bursa ( grc-gre, Προῦσα, Proûsa, Latin: Prusa, ota, بورسه, Arabic:بورصة) is a city in northwestern Turkey and the administrative center of Bursa Province. The fourth-most populous city in Turkey and second-most populous in the ...

, Turkey * Central Administrative Okrug (Moscow), Russia *

Charlottesville Charlottesville, colloquially known as C'ville, is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is the county seat of Albemarle County, which surrounds the city, though the two are separate legal entities. It is named after Queen Cha ...

, United States *

Chernivtsi Chernivtsi ( uk, Чернівці́}, ; ro, Cernăuți, ; see also other names) is a city in the historical region of Bukovina, which is now divided along the borders of Romania and Ukraine, including this city, which is situated on the upp ...

, Ukraine *

Edessa Edessa (; grc, Ἔδεσσα, Édessa) was an ancient city (''polis'') in Upper Mesopotamia, founded during the Hellenistic period by King Seleucus I Nicator (), founder of the Seleucid Empire. It later became capital of the Kingdom of Osroene ...

, Greece *

Gornji Milanovac Gornji Milanovac ( sr-Cyrl, Гoрњи Милановац, ) is a town and municipality located in the Moravica District of central Serbia. The population of the town is 24,216, while the population of the municipality is 44,406. The town was foun ...

, Serbia *

Jinzhou Jinzhou (, ), formerly Chinchow, is a coastal prefecture-level city in central-west Liaoning province, China. It is a geographically strategic city located in the Liaoxi Corridor, which connects most of the land transports between North Chin ...

, China *

Kaiserslautern Kaiserslautern (; Palatinate German: ''Lautre'') is a city in southwest Germany, located in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate at the edge of the Palatinate Forest. The historic centre dates to the 9th century. It is from Paris, from Frankfur ...

, Germany *

Kavadarci Kavadarci ( mk, Кавадарци ) is a town in the Tikveš region of North Macedonia. In the heart of North Macedonia's wine country, it is home to the largest winery in Southeast Europe, named after the Tikveš plain. The town of Kavadarci i ...

, North Macedonia *

Ponta Delgada Ponta Delgada (; ) is the largest municipality (''concelho'') and economic capital of the Autonomous Region of the Azores in Portugal. It is located on São Miguel Island, the largest and most populous in the archipelago. As of 2021, it has 67,28 ...

, Portugal *

Płock Płock (pronounced ) is a city in central Poland, on the Vistula river, in the Masovian Voivodeship. According to the data provided by GUS on 31 December 2021, there were 116,962 inhabitants in the city. Its full ceremonial name, according to the ...

, Poland *

Rostov-on-Don Rostov-on-Don ( rus, Ростов-на-Дону, r=Rostov-na-Donu, p=rɐˈstof nə dɐˈnu) is a port city and the administrative centre of Rostov Oblast and the Southern Federal District of Russia. It lies in the southeastern part of the East Eu ...

, Russia *

Segovia Segovia ( , , ) is a city in the autonomous community of Castile and León, Spain. It is the capital and most populated municipality of the Province of Segovia. Segovia is in the Inner Plateau (''Meseta central''), near the northern slopes of th ...

, Spain *

Volos Volos ( el, Βόλος ) is a coastal port city in Thessaly situated midway on the Greek mainland, about north of Athens and south of Thessaloniki. It is the sixth most populous city of Greece, and the capital of the Magnesia regional unit ...

, Greece *

Yangquan Yangquan ( ) is a prefecture-level city in the east of Shanxi province, People's Republic of China, bordering Hebei province to the east. Situated at the eastern edge of the Loess Plateau and the west side of the Taihang Mountains, known as "Rip ...

, China

Honours

* A city in Kansas and a town in Montana in the United States, as well as a village in Ontario,

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

were named after Pleven, or more precisely its historical name in English ''Plevna'', the reason for which is the battle in 1877. * A road in Hampton, Middlesex, London is named Plevna, adjoining another called Varna Road both made up of Victorian terraced housing built in the 1870s and named after the battles in Bulgaria of the period. * Pleven Saddle on

Livingston Island Livingston Island (Russian name ''Smolensk'', ) is an Antarctic island in the Southern Ocean, part of the South Shetlands Archipelago, a group of Antarctic islands north of the Antarctic Peninsula. It was the first land discovered south of 60 ...

in the

South Shetland Islands The South Shetland Islands are a group of Antarctic islands with a total area of . They lie about north of the Antarctic Peninsula, and between southwest of the nearest point of the South Orkney Islands. By the Antarctic Treaty of 195 ...

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest contine ...

is named after Pleven. * In other countries there are five cities and towns named after Plevna, and eighteen Plevna streets in Britain alonewww.davidkidd.net/20Plevna.html
. * In

, more than 10 large cities have a Plevna (Romanian for "Pleven") street, as Pleven was the location for an important battle between the

on one side, and the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

and Romania on the other, after which Romania gained independence.

Gallery

File:Pleven TodorBozhinov (63).jpg, Holy Trinity Church File:Medical University Pleven TB.jpg,

Medical University Pleven Medical University - Pleven ( bg, Медицински университет — Плевен, ''Meditsinski universitet — Pleven'') is one of the four medical universities in Bulgaria. It is the only university in Pleven and was fo ...

File:Pleven TodorBozhinov (61).jpg, Pleven monument File:S6301245 6 4.jpg,

File:Pleven TodorBozhinov (8).jpg File:Pleven TodorBozhinov (7).jpg File:Pleven TodorBozhinov (20).jpg File:Pleven TodorBozhinov (50).jpg File:Pleven TodorBozhinov (52).jpg File:Pleven TodorBozhinov (67).jpg File:Pleven Antistene 1.jpg File:Pleven TodorBozhinov (55).jpg File:Pleven TodorBozhinov (32).jpg File:Pleven TodorBozhinov (53).jpg

References

Sources

External links

Municipality of Pleven
{{Authority control Populated places in Pleven Province