Pleven tourist info and hotels

Pleven is a town with 122 149 inhabitants, located at 150m elevation in the central Danubian Plain, near the Vit River. It is 174km away from Sofia, 35km away from Lovech, 53km from Cherven Bryag, 49km away from Lukovit, 146km from Rousse, 55km away from Nikopol, 49km from Levski and 76km from Oryahovo. The town is a regional administrative centre and a town-pantheon.

The first inhabitants of the area were Thracians who called the place Storgoziya. That name was also kept by the Romans. Later on, the barbarians destroyed the town and when the Slavs rebuilt it, they called it Kamenets. There was another settlement nearby, called Pleven and the two of them were combined sometime in the 13th century. After that, the town became a big trading and craftsman centre.

When the Ottomans conquered Bulgaria, the people in Pleven fought so bravely and restlessly, that when it fell (1596) they were slaughtered or converted to the Islam and the town was set on fire. After the 17th century the town grew more and more and became a very prosperous trading centre. In 1825 in Pleven was established an unclerical school and in 1840 – the first school for girls in Bulgaria. The town grew into a cultural centre with its schools, churches (St. Nikolai Church with its great icons and mastery iconostasis) and many reading clubs and cultural centers. In this place Vassil Levski founded a secret revolutionary committee in 1869.
Pleven was an important place during the Russian-Turkish War of Liberation (1877-1978). As the Russians tried to free the Bulgarians from their Ottoman Slavery, they had to conquer the strategic fortress of Pleven. There were three unsuccessful attacks of the fortress by the Russians and the Romanians and the third one was the most severe of all – 16 000 people were killed or injured. After all, the Russians managed to besiege Pleven by preventing the 45 000 army of Suleiman Pasha to reach it. After 5 months of defense the Pleven fortress fell on 10th December 1877. After the Liberation Pleven managed to grow again and today it is the 7th biggest town in the country.