Silistra
| Silistra (Силистра) | |||||
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| Basic data | |||||
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| State : |
 Bulgaria
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| Oblast : | Silistra | ||||
| Residents : | 32,400 (December 31, 2016) | ||||
| Area : | 27,159 km² | ||||
| Population density | 1,193 inhabitants / km² | ||||
| Coordinates : | 44 ° 7 ′ N , 27 ° 16 ′ E | ||||
| Height : | 6 m | ||||
| Postal code : | 7500 | ||||
| Telephone code : | (+359) 086 | ||||
| License plate : | CC | ||||
| administration | |||||
| Mayor : | Julian Naidenow | ||||
| Ruling party : | GERB | ||||
| Website : | www.silistra.bg | ||||
Silistra [ siˈlistrɐ ] ( Bulgarian Силистра ) is a port city in northeastern Bulgaria with currently 32,400 inhabitants (1985: 53,500). The city is the administrative seat of the eponymous province of Silistra and the municipality of Silistra. On the outskirts there is the border crossing Silistra (Bulgarian ГКПП Силистра, GKPP Silistra) to Romania .
The city of Silistra is one of the 100 national tourist objects in Bulgaria. With its long history, it is one of the oldest Bulgarian cities. In ancient times, the city was part of the province of Moesia and was named Dorostorum . The western Roman general Flavius Aëtius was born here around 390 . In the course of the reconquest of the Balkans by the Eastern Roman Emperor Johannes Tzimiskes since 971, the city was renamed Theodoroupolis and added to the administrative theme of Paristrion . In the Middle Ages, Silistra was known by the name Drastar .
location
Silistra is located in the southern part of the Dobruja , in the far northeast of Bulgaria on the Danube , right on the border with Romania . The city is the last Bulgarian settlement on the Danube downstream.
The distances to some well-known places are: 430 km to Sofia , 120 km to Russe , 140 km to Varna and 200 km to Bucharest .
The city is on the Danube Cycle Path , an international long-distance cycle route .
history
Antiquity
Silistra was founded by the Romans in 29 AD as Durostorum (often also Dorostorum ) and was an important military base , as well as river port and road station in the province of Moesia on the Danube Limes . From Troesmis on the Danube Delta via Durostorum, Sexaginta Prista , Novae , a Roman military road led along the right bank of the Danube to Sirmium . In Durostorum there was a junction to Marcianopolis and Odessos to the Via Pontica .
After the Dacian wars of Emperor Trajan (ruled 98–117), the Legio XI Claudia was stationed here to secure the Danube border. Under Emperor Gordian III. (ruled 238–244) Durostorum was contested when the Goths , Carps and Sarmatians invaded the provinces on the lower Danube. Even under Emperor Decius (r. 249-251), new incursions led to further battles with Goths and Carps, who had crossed the Danube and overran the provinces of Moesia and Thrace . In the course of these battles Decius fell in 251 at the Battle of Abrittus .
Also under Emperor Aurelian (r. 270–275) there was fighting with the Carps in the Silistra region. In 272, Aurelian defeated the Goths under their King Cannabaudes, but decided to evacuate the province of Dacia , which was adjacent to the north of the Danube . Dorostorum became a border town again. Under Emperor Diocletian (r. 284-305), who visited the city in the summer of 303, Durostorum became the capital of the province of Scythia Minor . An edict by the same emperor from Durostorum has also survived from this period.
In 388 the city became the seat of a diocese . One of the first bishops was Auxentius of Dorostorum , a pupil of Wulfila , the first bishop of the Visigoths . Christianity had already gained ground in the region before, 12 Christian martyrs are known from the beginning of the 4th century. The relics of four of them ( Dasios , Maximus, Dada, and Quinctilian) were kept in the city until the 5th century. Since the division of the Roman Empire, Silistra belonged to the East and later to the Byzantine Empire .
Presumably Justinian I renewed the fortifications of Durostorum as part of his program to secure the Danube flank with a fortress belt. It can be assumed that the fall of the Roman city is related to the invasions of the Avars and Slavs in 586 (see Maurikios' Balkan campaigns ). In 586 Durostorum was conquered and destroyed by the Avars.
middle Ages
In the 7th century, Slavs settled in the region and named the city Drastar . When, towards the end of the century, the Bulgarians of Asparuchs invaded the Balkans, Drastar and the Slavic tribe of the Severen became part of the Bulgarian Empire . Drastar became the summer residence of the Bulgarian khans who built their capital in Pliska .
After the Christianization of the Bulgarians in 865, the Diocese of Drastar was formed as one of the first dioceses of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. In 927 the Bishop of Drastar, Damjan, was made a patriarch and the Bulgarian Orthodox Church a patriarchate. Under Tsar Simeon I , the city had strategic importance in the defensive struggle of the empire against the Magyars .
In 969 Drastar was one of the first Bulgarian fortresses to be affected by the conquering expeditions of the Grand Duke of the Kievan Rus , Svyatoslav I. The Bulgarian patriarch then moved his seat via Vidin and Sredez to Ohrid . As the expansion of the Kievan Rus into the Balkans threatened the region's political balance, Byzantium intervened under Emperor Johannes Tzimiskes . By 971, the eastern part of the Bulgarian Empire was conquered by Byzantium and Svyatoslav was forced to retreat. After the Byzantine reconquest in 971, the city received the name Theodoroupolis , because the Byzantines ascribed it to the help of St. Theodoros to have defeated Svyatoslav in the fortress Silistra (→ Siege of Dorostolon ). In 976 the future Bulgarian Emperor Samuil conquered the region between the Balkan Mountains and the Danube, as well as the city and resided here. In 1001 the Byzantine Emperor Basil II sent his army, which subsequently subjugated the region again. For the following decades Drastar became the center of the Byzantine province of Paristrion .
After 1186 Drastar became part of the Second Bulgarian Empire . After the Battle of Nicopolis in 1396, Drastar fell to the Ottomans .
Ottoman time
Dristra, as the Ottomans now called the city, became part of the province of Rumelia and the capital of the Sanjak Silistra and the seat of a Beylerby . 200 years later, in 1599, the sanjak was upgraded to a separate province (→ Vilâyet ) and expanded. The former Turkish Silistria comprised the entire northeast and east of today's Bulgaria, the Romanian Dobruja and the Ukrainian Budschak . The Ottoman traveler Hajji Kalfa reported that the city was the most exquisite of all on the Danube and that it contained a ruler's palace, 5 mosques and 2 baths. In 1652 the Ottoman traveler Evliya Çelebi visited and reported about the city
In mid-September 1809 the city was first unsuccessfully besieged in the course of the Russo-Turkish War (1806-1812) , but was finally taken on May 30, 1810 by the Russian army . In 1812, after the Peace of Bucharest , Silistra became Ottoman again. In the Russo-Ottoman War (1828-1829) the city was fortified, but on June 18, 1829 by Russian troops, supported by the local population, captured. Even after the Treaty of Adrianople, the Russians kept the city until 1836. Outside the city, the Volna district was formed, which was inhabited by Bulgarian refugees. Georgi Mamartschew , an uncle of Georgi Rakovsky , became the commander and first Bulgarian mayor of the city . In the spring of 1837 the German officer Helmuth von Moltke visited Silistra. According to his plans, a new fortress and the fortress square Silistra - Varna - Shumen - Rustschuk were built between 1841 and 1853 . In 1848 the first Bulgarian school was built in the Volna district. In 1852 the Austrian scholar Felix Kanitz visited the city.
During the Crimean War , the city was besieged by Russian troops and finally horrified by the Ottoman general Omar Pascha in 1854 and the Bulgarian quarter burned down. Shaped by the ideas of the Bulgarian revival , the fight against the dominant Greek language in schools and churches was initiated. In 1858 the Bulgarian school was re-established when the Greek school split off. In 1862 the Greek bishop was expelled and the Bulgarian Peter and Paul Church was built. In 1864 the amalgamation of the Ottoman provinces Silistra, Niš and Vidin became the greater province of Tuna with Russian as the center and Silistra lost its importance. During the reign of Midhat Pasha over the Greater Province, the roads to and from Silistra were expanded and a telegraph line was laid. In 1870 a Bulgarian girls' school was opened.
In 1871 a church council of the newly founded Bulgarian Orthodox Church decided to merge the Diocese of Dorostol with the Diocese of Cherven (Russe), under the name of Diocese of Dorostol and Cherven (Bulgarian Доростоло-Червенска епархия). The city of Ruse was chosen as the seat of the new eparchy, which at that time was one of the largest cities in the Ottoman Empire.
Modern times
In the course of the Russo-Ottoman War of 1877/78, the Russians initially unsuccessfully besieged Silistra. It was not until February 1878 that the Ottomans withdrew. This ended the centuries-long Ottoman-Turkish rule over the city. After the Peace of San Stefano and the Berlin Congress of 1878, Silistra was assigned to the newly founded Principality of Bulgaria and the city became the capital of a district in 1883 . After the liberation of Bulgaria came the economic boom and Silistra became the most important Bulgarian port on the Danube. The first official city map dates from 1882 and the first development plan of Silistra from 1907 . In 1907, the first electric mill in Bulgaria was put into operation in Silistra.
After the Balkan Wars of 1912/13, in which the city was conquered by the Romanians, it and the Bulgarian Dobruja belonged to Romania after the Peace of Bucharest . During this time, the Romanian administration closed all public buildings. Only two Bulgarian schools remained - one elementary school and, from 1939, a mixed high school. Only in the Treaty of Craiova of 1940 did Bulgaria get back the southern Dobruja and Silistra. The theater was founded in 1941.
In 2002 a church council decided to restore the diocese of Dorostol with its seat in Silistra. Ilarion von Dorostol became the first bishop . On this occasion, Pope John Paul II , who visited Bulgaria in the same year, donated some of the relics of Saint Dasios to the city, which are now kept in the Peter and Paul Cathedral .
The Silistra Knoll on Livingston Island in Antarctica is named after the city. This also applies indirectly to Durostorum Bay on the Oskar II coast of Graham Land on the Antarctic Peninsula .
Attractions
The Roman Durostorum has existed for 1900 years. In the area you can often find legacies from these times. One of the most valuable wall drawings in Europe from the fourth century can be found in the city. Today the traces of history can be viewed as exhibits in the Silistra City Museum.
Silistra is known for its Srebarna nature reserve , which is located just outside the city. Many animals can be seen in the reserve at all times, including colonies of pelicans and other species of birds that spend the summer there. All the voices of the animals living in the reserve can be heard in the building of the reserve.
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Sports
The OFK Dotostol Silistra is the only major football club in the city. He is currently playing in the second Bulgarian league ( B Grupa Ost) , the 2010/11 season . His home games take place in the Louis Eyer Stadium (named after Louis-Emil Eyer ). There is also the BK Dotostol Silistra basketball team in the city .
politics
Community structure
The city council also functions as the local council and is responsible for overseeing all mayors of the localities. The following villages also belong to the municipality of Silistra (Bulgarian Община Силистра / Obschtina Silistra):
Town twinning
Silistra has partnerships with the following cities:
Personalities
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Individual evidence
- ^ Paul Stephenson: The Legend of Basil the Bulgar-Slayer. University Press, Cambridge 2003. ISBN 0-521-81530-4 . P. 65.
- ↑ a b c Pius Bonifatius Gams : The first three centuries. In: The Church History of Spain. Volume 1, Verlag GJ Manz, 1862, p. 398ff.
- ↑ See: Veselin Beševliev : Bulgarian-Byzantine essays. Variorum Collected Studies Series CS 80, Variorum Reprints, London 1978, p. 199; Josef Ladislav Pe: Ueber Die Strammung Der Rumnen , BiblioBazaar, LLC, 2008, p. 39.
- ↑ James Hastings: Encyclopedia of Religion, Part 11 , Kessinger Publishing, 2003, p. 430.
- ↑ Ḥājī Khalīfah: Rumeli and Bosna, described geographically. P. 24.
- ↑ Walter Leitsch, Stanisław Trawkowski: Poland and Austria in the 17th century. Böhlau, Vienna 1999, p. 269.
- ^ Mathias Bernath, Felix von Schroeder, Gerda Bartl: Biographisches Lexikon zur Geschichte Südosteuropas. Volume 3, Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, Munich 1979, pp. 190ff.
- ↑ K. Manoloff: railway construction and operation policy of Bulgaria , BiblioBazaar, LLC, 2009, p 75ff.
- ↑ Apostolic Journey of the Holy Father John Paul II to Azerbaijan and Bulgaria
- ↑ http://mysilistra.net/article/32/
- ↑ Побратимени градове
- ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from December 15, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ http://silistra.bg/readarticle.php?article_id=66
