Town of Vidin (57 614 inhabitants, 20-25 m above sea level) is situated on the
bank of the Danube River, on its big curve in the most northwest corner of
Bulgaria. It is 199 km to the northwest from Sofia, 102 km northwest from
Montana, 52 km north from Belogradchik, 56 km northwest from Lom and 30 km to
the southeast from the border town of Bregovo. It is one of the oldest
Bulgarian towns. It is a regional administrative centre.
The past of this town dates 23 centuries ago. As early as 3rd century BC the
Celts built a settlement here with the name Dounonia (a high and fortified
place). The Romans put into final shape the fortress with the purpose to guard
the border road along the Danube and named it Bononia. Bulgarians named the
town Bdin, and Byzantines - Vidini. In the meantime it was ruined and built
again many times. In 1003 Gavril Radomir, the son of the Bulgarian Tsar
Samouil, stood the 8-months siege of the Byzantine Emperor Vassilii II. The
town reaches the greatest flourishing at the end of 14th century, when it
becomes a capital of the Bdin Kingdom of Ivan Sratsimir (1360). It has been a
port on the river and an important trade centre of goods not only for domestic
needs, but also for transit trade with Vlashko (Romania), Madzharsko,
Dubrovnik, etc. A gospel from 1360 says that it was written in “the great and
crowded town of Bdin”. The rise of the town ceased in 1396 when the Turks
invades it. Since then Bulgaria started counting the 482 dark years of Ottoman
rule, the 127195 endless days of persecution, terror, human misery,
assimilation and overt genocide.
In those centuries Vidin had been a great fortress and an important
administrative centre. In 17th century it was even called “ the main town of
Bulgaria”. In 1794-1807 the town became a centre of the absolute Turkish
military leader Osman Pazvantooglu, who declared himself an independent ruler
of a considerable part of Bulgarian northwestern territories. During his rule
construction on a large scale developed in the town - new streets were made,
big administrative buildings rose, mosques and medreses (Islamic religious
schools) were built, etc. Some of them are preserved even till now. Vidin
gradually turned into an oriental town, especially after the settlement of
some Turks after the defeat near Vienna and the liberation of Serbia.
Expression of desperate fight for national liberation was the famous Vidin
Uprising of 1850 headed by Boiadzhi Stanko Voivoda. Gradually with development
of shipping along the Danube and with the strengthening of the trade ties with
Central Europe the standard of living of its inhabitants rose. Through Vidin
Port Austrian Shipping Co. bought the production of the whole Western
Bulgaria, incl. Macedonia. That went on till 1866 when neighbouring Lom was
connected through a road with Sofia and replaced Vidin.
After the Liberation (1877) the town changed basically its ethnical population
in favour of the Bulgarians. During the Serbian-Bulgarian War after the Union
of Eastern Roumelia with the Bulgarian Principality (1885) Vidin was
successfully defended by captain Atanas Uzunov. The town is a birthplace of
the eminent Bulgarian social activist Naicho Tsanov and of world famous artist
post-impressionist artist Jul Pasken (Iulius Pinkas, 1885-1930), a brilliant
representative of the Paris School of Art. |
