1st Century BC Traces of Earliest Roman Presence in Bulgaria on Danube Discovered Halfway between Major Antiquity Cities Bononia (Vidin) and Ratiaria (Archar)

A vast archaeological site, which was an Ancient Roman settlement with traces from the earliest Roman presence in today’s Bulgaria in the 1^st century BC and was located halfway between the large Roman Empire cities of Bononia (today’s Vidin) and Ratiaria (today’s Archar) has been discovered by archaeologists in rescue excavations near the Danube River in Northwest Bulgaria.

The previously unknown Roman settlement in question has been found due to rescue excavations for the construction of the Sofia – Vidin Highway. It is located along the Vidbol River, a local tributary of the Danube, near the towns of Sinagovtsi and Dunavtsi, Vidin Municipality, in Bulgaria’s northwestern “corner” sandwiched between Romania and Serbia.

Besides the Roman Era finds spanning a period from the 1^st century BC until at least the 3^rd century AD, the newly discovered archaeological site near Sinagovtsi also contains structures from the Early Iron Age, respectively Ancient Thrace; from the Early Middle Ages in the 7^th – 8^th century, the time of the Ancient Bulgars and the early period of the First Bulgarian Empire (632/680 – 1018 AD); and a late medieval Christian necropolis most likely dating to the early Ottoman period (15^th – 17^th century).

The Ancient Roman settlement found as a result of the construction of the highway between Bulgaria’s capital Sofia and the Danube city of Vidin, which includes finds from the era of both the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire, is also remarkable because of its location along the Roman Danube road (running along the southern bank of the river, in today’s Bulgaria’s) exactly in the middle between the Roman cities of Ratiaria (today the small town of Archar) and Bononia (today’s Vidin).

The archaeological site near Sinagovtsi and the Vidbol River in Northwest Bulgaria has been discovered by a team led by archaeologist Zdravko Dimitrov, an expert in Roman archaeology who has been the lead archaeologist of present-day research in both Ratiaria and Bononia.

Finds from the 2020 rescue excavations and the discovery of the previously unknown 1^st century BC Roman site near Sinagovtsi have been showcased in the 2020 Bulgarian Archaeology Exhibition.

The annual exhibition in the National Institute and Museum of Archaeology in Sofia, which was opened in February 2021, traditionally presents to the public the most interesting archaeological discoveries from the preceding year.

The newly discovered Roman settlement is about 10 kilometers away from each of the two major Roman cities close to it, Ratiaria to the southwest and Vidin to the north.

Ratiaria was one of the largest Roman cities outside the Italian Peninsula and a colony of the city of Rome, which made its residents equal in status to the residents of the capital of the Roman Empire.

In the 3^rd-5^th century AD, Ratiaria was the capital of the Late Roman province of Dacia Ripensis. It was a major Roman arsenal city, i.e. a producer of armaments, part of them used during the Roman Empire’s conquest of Dacia north of the Lower Danube (in today’s Romania) in the 2^nd – 3^rd century AD.

In today’s Bulgaria, there are only three Roman cities which enjoyed the status of colonies of the city of Rome: Ratiaria (Colonia Ulpia Traiana Ratiaria) near the Danube town of Archar in Northwest Bulgaria; Ulpia Oescus near Gigen, also near the Danube, and also in Northwest Bulgaria; and Deultum (Colonia Flavia Pacis Deultensium) near the Black Sea city of Burgas in Southeast Bulgaria.

Ratiaria had been very well preserved until 1990-1991 when treasure hunters started ripping it apart. Brutally looted and destroyed by treasure hunters in the 1990s and 2000s, its name has become synonymous with modern-day Bulgaria’s vast treasure hunting problem. In spite of that, however, archaeologists have found that many of its structures buried underground have survived almost intact the monstrous treasure hunting raids which used to involve bulldozers and tractors.

Ratiaria had a total territory of about 600 decares (app. 150 acres). Bononia, the Roman predecessor of today’s Vidin is said to be the largest Roman fortress on the Lower Danube River – only its fortified territory was about 200 decares (appr. 50 acres).

Bononia was part of the so called Limes Moesiae, the frontier Lower Danube region where the Roman Empire built a system of fortifications designed to stop barbarian attacks from the north and northeast. Back in 2018, archaeologists discovered a massive decagonal fortress tower from Bononia’s fortifications.

The Danube city of Vidin is home to the Baba Vida Fortress, or castle, which is the best preserved fortress from the time of the medieval Bulgarian Empire. It is located on a section from the territory of the Roman city which preceded it.

In the official catalog and poster for the newly discovered Sinagovtsi archaeological site, the team led by archaeologist Zdravko Dimitrov points out the natural specifics of the area.

“[We] have discovered a large archaeological site located in the lower course of the Vidbol River, right before and almost at its mouth at the Danube River, 300 meters to the east of the picturesque town of Sinagovtsi,” the team says.

“The area’s topographic characteristics are extremely important since this is precisely the transition between the floodplain of the Danube River to the Moesia Plateau. It is 2-3 kilometers away from the town of Dynavtsi, the last town before the city of Vidin along the road,” the archaeologists note further.

“This is an especially interesting area of the Upper Moesia region of the Roman Empire located on the Danube road, in the middle between the two large civilian and military hubs, Bononia and Ratiaria. Settlements here were located along the largest “inward” curve of the Danube River, the point where the river goes the furthest into Moesia’s territory, before it turns its course to the east,” the archaeological team explains.

The archaeologists say further that the their 2020 digs, which led to the discovery of the previously unknown Ancient Roman site, one of the earliest in all of Bulgaria and along the Lower Danube, were in fact a preliminary drilling exploration.

Their field research covered a large area of a total of 47 decares (12 acres) of plain terrain alongside the Vidbol River, a small local Danube tributary.

The researchers emphasize that the entire area is going to be affected by the construction of the Sofia – Vidin Highway since the spot near Sinagovtsi is going to include a cloverleaf interchange, a highway junction with a road leading to the towns of Kula and Gramada.

“As a result of the excavations, [we] have discovered archaeological structures, layers and finds from a total of five historical eras. The entire area of the site is covered with archaeological structures and it has a really complicated, multilayered character,” the archaeological team says.

It elaborates that the archaeological eras from which the newly discovered site contains structures, materials, and artifacts are the Early Iron Age, the time of Ancient Thrace; the Early Roman period from the 1^st century BC until the 1^st century AD; the Roman Imperial Age, [namely] the Principate, from the 1^st – 3^rd century AD; the Early Middle Ages, the time of the Ancient Bulgars and the First Bulgarian Empire, in the 7^th – 8^th century AD; and a medieval Christian necropolis of unspecified chronology, probably from the Ottoman Era (15^th – 19^th century).

“After more than a month of field research, near the Vidbol River, [we] have discovered large ruins from a Roman Age building. It has two construction periods during the time of the Roman Empire’s Principate (2^nd – 3^rd century AD),” the archaeologist say.

They note that the walls and the collapsed roofs from the ancient architectural complex in question have been perfectly preserved in situ, and are yet to be researched further. Next to the building, they have found three kilns apparently connected with it.

“[We] discovered even more interesting structures right next to that building. This is extremely rare data about the earliest presence of the Romans on [Bulgarian] lands,” the archaeological team says.

“The most valuable finds from those structures are adornments and silver coins from the 1^st century BC – 1^st century AD. [The finds] that stand out are the silver coins of the Roman Republic, denarii of Roman triumvir Marc Anthony (Marcus Anthonius) (83 – 30 BC), as well as Roman fibulae of the rarest types ‘Jeserine’ and ‘Augen’,” the archaeologists explain.

The researchers emphasize both the fact that those are among the earliest Ancient Roman artifacts to have been discovered in Bulgaria, respectively, along the Lower Danube, and the location of the previously unknown Roman settlement halfway between Bononia and Ratiaria.

“Besides these serious remnants from the Roman Era, [we] have found traces from an Ancient Thracian settlement from the Early Iron Age, early medieval finds from the 7^th – 8^th century AD, and structures from necropolises from the Roman Era and the Ottoman period (five inhumation graves under the Christian burial rite with no inventories have been found so far).

“The artifacts [we have] found in this extremely important and rich archaeological site just during the preliminary exploration in 2020 amount to more than 300. The full excavation of the archaeological complex near SInagovtsi is upcoming during the next archaeological season,” the archaeological team states.

Learn more about the Ancient Roman cities of Ratiaria and Bononia in Northwest Bulgaria in the Background Infonotes below!

Also check out these other stories about Ratiaria and Bononia:

Archaeologists Discover Western Gate of Ancient Roman, Byzantine Fortress Bononia in Bulgaria’s Danube City Vidin

Archaeologists Surprisingly Find Western Fortress Wall of Roman Colony Ratiaria in Northwest Bulgaria Has Survived Treasure Hunters’ Bulldozers

Decagonal Roman Fortress Tower from Ancient Bononia Unearthed in Bulgaria’s Danube City Vidin

Bulgarian Archaeologists Seek to Restore 1980s Research Cooperation with Italy in Bid to Save Looted Ancient Roman City Ratiaria

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Background Infonotes:

Ratiaria, formally known as Colonia Ulpia Traiana Ratiaria, is an Ancient Roman arsenal city located on the right bank of the Lower Danube, near today’s Bulgarian town of Archar, in the Vidin District.

Some scholars believe that the city of Ratiaria was first founded by the Thracian tribe Moesi in the 4^th century BC, near a gold mine. In 29 BC, the Moesi were defeated by Roman general Marcus Licinius Crassus sealing the Roman conquest of today’s Northwest Bulgaria.

All of Ancient Thrace south of the Danube was conquered by the Roman Empire in 46 AD, and in 87 AD, Roman Emperor Domitian (r. 81-96 AD) organized the region of Moesia into the Roman provinces of Moesia Superior (in today’s Northwest Bulgaria and Eastern Serbia) and Moesia Inferior (in today’s Northern Central and Northeast Bulgaria, and the Romanian part of the region of Dobrudzha).

It is assumed that the Roman arsenal city of Ratiaria was set up during the reign of Emperor Vespasian (r. 69-79 AD). After the Roman conquest of the Dacians, the Thracian tribes north of the Danube, in 107 AD, Ratiaria became a colony in Moesia Superior under the name Colonia Ulpia Traiana Ratiaria, taking the names of its founder, Roman Emperor Trajan (r. 98-117 AD).

In today’s Bulgaria, there are only three Roman cities which enjoyed the status of colonies of the city of Rome: Ratiaria (Colonia Ulpia Traiana Ratiaria) near the Danube town of Archar in Northwest Bulgaria; Ulpia Oescus near Gigen, also near the Danube, and also in Northwest Bulgaria; and Deultum (Colonia Flavia Pacis Deultensium) near the Black Sea city of Burgas in Southeast Bulgaria.

In 271 AD, Roman Emperor Aurelian (r. 270-275 AD) transformed the province of Moesia Superior into the province of Dacia Aureliana with its capital at Serdica (today’s Sofia), after vacating Dacia Traiana beyond the Danube.

Around 283 AD, Dacia Aureliana was divided into two provinces, Dacia Mediterranea, with its capital at Serdica, and Dacia Ripensis (“Dacia from the banks of the Danube”) with its capital at Ratiaria (Colonia Ulpia Ratiaria).

Throughout its entire existence in the Roman Empire, and later the Early Byzantine Empire (Eastern Roman Empire), Ratiaria was a key Roman outpost defending the Limes Moesiae, i.e. the frontier area of the Roman Empire on the Lower Danube. It was one of a total of six Roman arsenal cities, i.e. producers of arms, along the Limes Moesiae.

The Roman Legion Legio IV Flavia Felix (“Lucky Flavian 4^th Legion) was based at Ratiaria at least until the Roman conquest of Dacia (101-106 AD). During the reign of Emperor Vespasian (r. 69-79 AD), it was the headquarters of Classis Moesica, the Lower Danube fleet of the Roman Empire established between 20 BC and 10 AD, which controlled the Danube from the Iron Gates to the Northwest Black Sea as far as the Crimean (Taurica) Peninsula.

At different points in time, it was headquartered at Noviodunum (near Isaccea, today’s Romania), Ratiaria, Sexaginta Prista (today’s Bulgarian city of Ruse), and with secondary bases at Novae (near Bulgaria’s Svishtov) and Ulpia Oescus (near Bulgaria’s Gigen), and Tomis (today’s Constanta in Romania).

The name of Ratiaria is derived from the Latin word “ratis” (raft) or from “ratiaria“, a type of vessel, signifying its significance for the Roman Navy, especially since only two of all Roman frontier outposts on the Limes Moesiae have names connected with sailing – Ratiaria and Sexaginta Prista (meaning “Port of the Sixty Ships”, today’s Bulgarian city of Ruse).

As the capital of Late Roman province of Dacia Ripensis, Ratiaria served as the seat of the military governor and the base for Legio XIII Gemina (the 13^th Twin Legion). Colonia Ulpia Ratiaria was the home of many Roman patricians (aristocrats). According to 7^th century Byzantine historian Theophylact Simocatta, the city of Ratiaria existed until 586 AD when it was destroyed in a barbarian invasion of the Avars.

The Ancient Roman city of Ratiaria is located on a high terrace with an area of 60 hectares (app. 148 acres), overlooking the Danube River, about 30-40 meters above the river; from the east and south it is surrounded by the Archaritsa River.

It was mentioned by Greco-Egyptian ancient geographer Claudius Ptolemy (ca. 90-168 AD) in his work “Geography” in the 2^nd century AD, and was marked in the 4^th century AD Tabula Peutingeriana (the Peutinger Map showing cursus publicus, the road network in the Roman Empire, covering Europe, North Africa and parts of Asia), and was mentioned in the so called Antonine Itinerary (Itinerarium Antonini Augusti, “The Itinerary of Emperor Antoninus”), an Ancient Roman register of road stations.

The name Colonia Ulpia Traiana Ratiaria is first mentioned in a Roman inscription from 125 AD. Other inscriptions discovered by the Bulgarian and Italian archaeologists excavating the site in the 1980s indicate that the city of Ratiaria had a lot of resident settlers from the Italian Peninsula as well as aristocrats of Eastern origin. One of the finds is a rare inscription dedicated to the Roman deity Pales, a patron of shepherds, flocks, and livestock.

Judging by the excavated graves and numerous discovered artifacts, slabs, statues (for example, a marble statue of the resting Hercules (Heracles)), and sarcophagi, Ratiaria was a key center of arts, agriculture and crafts, and there are indications that many of the landed estates around the city were cultivated with slave labor.

In the 2^nd-3^rd century AD, it likely emerged as the most important Ancient Roman urban center not just in the province of Moesia Superior but also in the entire northern part of the Balkan Peninsula. Its importance as a commercial center was underlined by the major Roman roads passing through it: the road from the Roman city of Singidunum (today’s Belgrade in Serbia) to the delta of the Danube, and from there down the Western Black Sea coast to the city of Byzantium, which later became Constantinople; the Roman roads from the province of Dacia to the Italian Peninsula.

Some of the most interesting Late Antiquity structures excavated at Ratiaria include a building with agricultural tools, clay lamps, household items, and Byzantine coins from the middle of the 6^th century AD, a building with a mosaic floor which likely was an Early Christian basilica, and pipes from the main aqueduct of Ratiaria.

Bones of a total of 18 species of wild and domestic animals have been found there. According to Bulgarian paleo-ornithologist Prof. Zlatozar Boev, the most interesting of those are the common pheasant (Phasianus colchicus colchicus), and the now nearly extinct in Bulgaria griffin vulture (Gyps fulvus).

Modern-day archaeological interest in the Ancient Roman city of Colonia Ulpia Ratiaria first started in the 1860s when it was visited by Austro-Hungarian geographer and archaeologist Felix Kanitz. In the 1890s, it was explored by Czech-Bulgarian archaeologist Vaclav Dobrusky, and in 1900 – by Bulgarian archaeologist Boris Dyakovich. The first paper on the history of Ratiaria was published in 1911 by Nikifor Nedelev, and in the first half of the 20^th century his word was built upon by archaeologists Ivan Velkov, Georti Katsarov, and Bogdan Filov.

In the 1960s, Ratiaria’s history was explored by archaeologists Velizar Velkov and Boris Gerov. In 1958-1968, Ratiaria was partly excavated by archaeologists from the Vidin Regional Museum of History, including its then Director Yordanka Atanasova.

In the 1980s, Ratiaria was excavated by a joint Bulgarian-Italian archaeological expedition led by Prof. Dario Giorgetti and Prof. Maria Bollini from the University of Bologna, which led to the publication of a the four-volume collection book Ratiariensia. Also in the 1980s, Bulgarian archaeologist Georgi Kuzmanov excavated the residence of the governor of the Roman province of Dacia Ripensis.

Unfortunately, the collapse of the communist regime in Bulgaria affected negatively the research and security of the Ancient Roman city. The archaeological excavations were terminated for lack of funding in 1991, and in the following years the once well preserved archaeological complex has been brutally looted and excavated by scores of treasure hunters – from poor local diggers to well-organized antique trafficking mobsters.

It is alleged that in the 1990s the Roman city was bulldozed by the local mafia with the alleged participation of some government officials, while local Roma clans have been picking at the archaeological site by hand for decades.

The treasure hunting plight of Ratiaria (and Bulgaria, for that matter) was documented in a 2009 documentary of Dateline on Australia’s SBS TV entitled “Plundering the Past”. The damage done to one of the largest Roman cities outside Italy can hardly be calculated. The archaeological excavations of Ratiaria were resumed in 2011 by archaeologist Krasimira Luka from Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”, and in 2013 by Assoc. Prof. Zdravko Dimitrov from the National Institute and Museum of Archaeology of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.

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The Ancient Roman fortress of Bononia and the fortified medieval Bulgarian city of Badin / Bdin with the surviving castle (fortress) Baba Vida are the predecessors of modern-day northwestern Bulgarian Danube city of Vidin.

The history of Vidin began in the 3^rd century BC when it was founded as a Celtic settlement named Dunonia (meaning “fortified hill”) called Dunavia by the Ancient Thracians. After the region was conquered by Ancient Rome in the 1^st century BC, the Romans called the settlement Bononia, and turned it into a major fortress on the Limes Moesiae (the Danube Limes), the frontier Lower Danube region of the Roman Empire that was supposed to stop barbarian attacks from the north and east.

According to Assoc. Prof. Dr. Zdravko Dimitrov from the National Institute and Museum of Archaeology of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Bononia was the largest Roman fortress on the Lower Danube, with a fortified territory of 200 decares (app. 50 acres).

Its fortress walls were 2.7-3 meters thick, and it had several huge fortress towers; for example, fortress tower No. 8 excavated by Dimitrov in 2014 had a diameter of 30 meters (some suppose that the floors inside the fortress towers were used as a military barracks).

The coins and ceramics unearthed in 2014 indicate that the Roman fortress Boninia was built in the 320s or the 330s AD, during the reign of Roman Emperor Constantine the Great (r. 306-337 AD) even though the archaeologists who worked on the excavations in Bulgaria’s Vidin in the 1970s at first thought that it was constructed somewhat later, at the end of the 4th and the beginning of the 5^th century AD.

Much of the modern-day city of Vidin appears to be lying on top of the ruins of the huge Roman fortress Bononia, which was part of the Roman province of Moesia Superior. Among the archaeological finds in the city of Vidin, Bulgarian paleo-ornithologist Prof. Zlatozar Boev from the National Museum of Natural History in Sofia has identified bird bones dating from the 8^th until the 17^th century AD of 7 bird species, including the western capercaillie (Tetrao urogallus), also known as the wood grouse, heather cock or capercaillie, which is now extinct in this part of Bulgaria; the common crane (Grus grus), and some of Bulgaria’s earliest remains of a domesticated turkey (Meleagris gallopavo f. domestica) in Bulgaria.

When the Slavs settled in the region of today’s Northwest Bulgaria in the Early Middle Ages, they called the city Budin or Bdin. The medieval Bulgarian fortress, or castle, to be more precise, known as Baba Vida was built in the 10^th century AD, during the First Bulgarian Empire (632/680-1018 AD), on top of the foundations of the Roman fortress Bononia.

The Baba Vida Castle is said to be the best preserved medieval Bulgarian fortress since the numerous other Bulgarian fortresses were destroyed by the invading Ottoman Turks at the end of the 14^th century AD (the Ottoman Turks called Baba Vida a “virgin” fortress because it was not taken by them by force).

The Baba Vida Castle (Fortress) surviving today was the inner and most fortified part of the medieval city of Bdin (Vidin), and was in fact used as the castle of the local feudal lord; remains of the city’s outer fortress wall have been revealed in Vidin’s quarter Kaleto (“kale” is the Turkish word meaning “fortress” used to denote many fortresses across Bulgaria).

The Baba Vida Castle has an area of 5 decares (app. 1.25 acres), and consists of two concentric rectangular walls with 4 fortress towers, which used to be surrounded by a water moat (which still fills up with water today when the level of the Danube rises), and had a drawbridge (which is today replaced with a stone bridge). It lies on top of the remains of a large fortress tower in the northeastern section of the Roman fortress Bononia.

The name of the Baba Vida (meaning “Grandmother Vida”) Fortress or Castle is believed to stem from a Bulgarian folklore legend, which says that a rich Bulgarian boyar (aristocrat) divided his feudal estate among his three daughters – Vida, Kula, and Gamza. Vida received the city of Vidin (Bdin), Kula received the area of today’s town of Kula, and Gamza received the area of the town of Gamzigrad (today in Serbia, located on the site of the Ancient Roman city of Felix Romuliana built by Roman Emperor Galerius (r. 293-311 AD)). Vida was the only one of the three daughters who managed to build a huge fortress, and she never married because she dedicated her life to the fortress’s defense against foreign invaders.

According to Byzantine chroniclers, in 1003 AD, during the reign of Bulgarian Tsar Samuil (r. 977/997-1014 AD), the fortress city of Bdin withstood successfully an eight-month siege led personally by Byzantine Emperor Basil II the Bulgar-slayer (r. 976-1025 AD) who eventually defeated the First Bulgarian Empire in 1018 AD. Before that, in 971-976 AD, Vidin is said to have been the center of the feudal region ruled by Samuil (one of the four Cometopuli (counts)) while his three other brothers ruled feudal regions to the south.

Badin / Bdin was a very important city during the Second Bulgarian Empire (1185-1396 AD), and especially in the second half of the 14^th century AD. It was technically the last Bulgarian capital to be conquered by the Ottoman Turks. After Bulgarian Tsar Ivan Alexander (r. 1331-1371 AD) lost his two eldest sons – Ivan in 1349 AD and Mihail in 1355 AD – in battles with the Ottoman Turks, he failed to prevent a number of Bulgarian feudal lords seceding, and on top of that divided the remainder of the Bulgarian Tsardom between his two surviving sons.

His third son Ivan Sratsimir (r. 1371-1396) received the smaller so called Vidin Tsardom, with the Danube city of Bdin (Vidin) as its capital, and his fourth son Ivan Shishman (r. 1371-1395) received the rest, the so called Tarnovo Tsardom, with the capital proper of Tarnovgrad (today’s Veliko Tarnovo). Just two decades later all Bulgarian lands, disunited and even warring among themselves, fell prey to the invading Ottoman Turks, ushering Bulgaria into five centuries of Ottoman Yoke (1396-1878/1912), and signifying a practically irreversible loss of its former great power status.

The modern-day look of the Baba Vida Castle was shaped during the reign of Tsar Ivan Sratsimir of the Vidin Tsardom when the fortifications of the city of Bdin (Vidin) were strengthened. Its best preserved tower is 16 meters high, has 2.8-meter thick walls, and is known as Sratsimir’s Tower. Before that, in 1365 AD, the city of Bdin (Vidin) was occupied by the Hungarians who called it Budony; however, they were driven out by the Bulgarian forces in 1369 AD.

The Ottoman Turks conquered the Tarnovo Tsardom (whose territory roughly corresponded to today’s Central Bulgaria) in 1393-5 AD (the main capital of the Second Bulgarian Empire, Tarnovgrad (today’s Veliko Tarnovo), fell after a three-month siege in 1393), and the Dobrudzha Despotate (also known as the Principality of Karvurna, in today’s Northeast Bulgaria and Southeast Romania) in 1395 AD, as well as the feudal states in the regions of Thrace and Macedonia which were part of the Second Bulgarian Empire.

By that time, Tsar Ivan Sratsimir, ruler of the Vidin (Bdin) Tsardom, had become a vassal of the Ottoman Turkish sultan. However, in 1396 AD, Hungarian King Sigismund of Luxembourg (r. 1387-1437 AD, later Holy Roman Emperor in 1433-1437 AD), organized a crusade against the Ottoman Turks leading Tsar Ivan Sratsimir to lend him full support. King Sigismund’s Crusade, however, ended in a disaster for the Christian forces in the Battle of Nicopolis (today’s Bulgarian town of Nikopol), after which Ottoman Sultan Bayezid I had Tsar Ivan Sratsimir chained and exiled in Bursa, Anatolia, where he was either killed or died in a dungeon, allegedly in 1402 AD.

Tsar Ivan Sratsimir’s heir, Konstantin (Constantine), however, was saved as the Ottoman forces entered Bdin (Vidin) in 1396 AD, and later together with his first counsin, Fruzhin, the son of Tsar Ivan Shishman, the ruler of the Tarnovo Tsardom, staged the so called Uprising of Konstantin and Fruzhin in 1408-1413 AD against the Ottoman Turks in today’s Northwest Bulgaria, which was ultimately unsuccessful. The majority of the Bulgarian historians believe that his was the end of the Vidin (Bdin) Tsardom, and of the Second Bulgarian Empire, respectively.

Some Bulgarian historians believe, however, that Tsar Ivan Sratsimir’s son became Tsar Konstantin II Asen (r. 1397-1422 AD) ruling as the Emperor of Bulgaria based in Bdin (Vidin), and controlling at least some of the northwestern territories of the Second Bulgarian Empire. A number of historical sources mention the Bulgarian Tsardom (Empire) and Tsar Konstantin II Asen from 1396 until 1422 AD, leading to the conclusion that after 1396 the Vidin Tsardom remained a vassal state of the Ottomans while also fighting against them.

According to this “alternative history” which has not made its way into Bulgarian history textbooks yet, in 1408-1413 AD, Tsar Konstantin II and his first cousin Fruzhin did not stage an uprising but the former was helping the latter try to regain his former throne in Veliko Tarnovo.

After 1413-1417, Tsar Konstantin II spent most of his time in Serbia and Hungary, and is known to have died in 1422 in the Serbian royal court in Belgrade. Even though according to the mainstream history of Bulgaria, the Vidin Tsardom, and all of the Second Bulgarian Empire, was conquered by the Ottoman Turks in 1396 AD, Ottoman records do not mention the existence of a Vidin Sanzhak (sancak in Turkish was an administrative unit in the Ottoman Empire) until 1430 AD.

The other “last” Bulgarian Tsar, Konstantin II’s first cousin (Tsar) Fruzhin, the heir to the throne in Tarnovgrad (Veliko Tarnovo) continued to participate in all Christian campaigns against the Ottoman Empire, which were also expected to achieve Bulgaria’s liberation, including the two unsuccessful Crusades of the Polish King Vladislav (Wladyslaw) III (r. 1424-1444 AD) in 1443 and 1444 AD (also known as Vladislav Varnenchik (Vladislav of Varna) because he was killed in the Battle of Varna in 1444 AD). Fruzhin held a feudal estate in the Kingdom of Hungary, and died in 1460 AD in the city of Brasov in Wallachia.

After they conquered the city of Bdin, the Ottoman Turks called it Vidin based on its Greek name Vidini (which is how, paradoxically, it is still called in today’s Bulgaria), and also used it as a major stronghold. In the 17^th and 18^th century, the city of Vidin was conquered a number of times by the forces of the Austrian Empire.

In 1689, the Austrians strengthened Vidin’s fortifications which helped preserve the Baba Vida Castle in a better condition in the following centuries. After the end of the 18^th century, the Ottoman Turks no longer used the Vidin Fortress for defensive purposes but as an arms depot and a dungeon where they kept and tortured Bulgarian freedom fighters. The imprisoned Bulgarian revolutionaries drew letters and signs (which can be seen today) on the walls of the dungeon to keep track of time.

Between 1794 and 1807, Vidin was the capital of Ottoman Janissary and separatist Osman Pazvantoglu who conquered for himself a sizable domain of Ottoman lands in today’s Northwest Bulgaria while warring with the Turkish sultan.

During the period of Ottoman Yoke, the city of Vidin and the Vidin region were the center of several uprisings of the Bulgarians against the Ottoman rule, including the major uprisings in 1773 and 1850, all of which were crushed by the Ottoman forces with bloody atrocities. After Bulgaria’s National Liberation in 1878, Vidin has remained one of the country’s most important cities.

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