|
|
|
Vidin - Culture |
|
|
|
|
|
|
©
Copyright 2000 - 2004
Eurotravelling.net POWERED BY
wORLDTRAVELGATE.NET |
 Back to WTG |
VIDIN
- a town on the Danube, 199 km north-west of Sofia. Situated on a low
bank, supported by dikes and other constructions. A river port, terminal
station along the railway line Sofia-Vidin, border check-point and a
ferryboat station to Calafat, Romania. Vidin is one of the oldest towns
along the Bulgarian Danube bank. It appears as Roman castle Bononia on the
foundations of a Thracian town. During the First Bulgarian Kingdom it is
known as Budin (Bdin). Bishop's centre. During the Second Bulgarian
Kingdom it is a strong fortress and after 1371 - capital of the Vidinsko
Tsarstvo under Tsar Ivan Stratsimir. Conquered by Ottoman invaders in 1396
which puts an end to Bulgarian independence. It becomes a trade, port,
educational and literary center.
During
the second half of 14 c. the literary school of Vidin is created; it is
here that one Tetraevangelia was copied (nowadays exhibited in the British
Museum, London) and the Collection of Bdin (1360, nowadays to be the found
in the library of Ghent, Belgium). Vidin is the centre of the Uprising of
Konstantin and Fruzhin (1404) against Ottoman rule, seat of independent
ruler Osman Nuri Pasha (the end of 18 c.). To this day the following sites
have been preserved: Baba Vida fortress, built in 9-10 c. on the ruins of
a Roman fortress (rebuilt many times, its present appearance dating back
to 18 c.), the Turkish konak (the second half of 18 c.), the mosque and
library of Osman Nuri Pasha, the cruciform barracks of 1798, old
Renaissance buildings, a synagogue. A historical museum, a theatre, an art
gallery.
With
a population of 65,000 today Vidin is an important transport junction with
a railway station, a coach station, an airport for civil services, a port.
The Vidin-Calafat ferry link that started in 1973 handles most of
the goods and passenger traffic from and via the country to Western
Europe. Vidin is proud of its museums, the art gallery which was opened on
May 15, 1962 and which, among other artists, displays pictures by Jules
Pascin, the philharmonic which is the successor of the first Vidin
orchestra organized in 1910 and the festival of cantata and oratorio
music.
