Silistra

Silistra (in Bulgarian Силистра) is a city of the North-East of the Bulgaria. It is on southern bank of the Danube, which marks at this place the border between Bulgaria and Romania. Silistra is in the middle of the Dobroudja, a fertile plain with horse between Bulgaria and Romania.

History

Silistra was founded in year 29, under the name of Durostorum; this locality occupies an important place in the province Roman E of Mésie. With the Middle Ages, the city is known under the name of Dorostol (as of the reign of the Byzantine emperor Justinien with the Life century) then of Drastar (in Bulgarian Дръстър), starting from the Bulgarian tsar Siméon Ier.

During the occupation Othoman E, which begins in 1388, Silistra becomes a place strengthened with the north-eastern corner of the famous Quadrilatère " Deli Orman" (Roussé, Silistra, Shumen, Varna), but its fortifications were destroyed in accordance with the Traité of Berlin (1878). One year before, the Russian troops had driven out the Turks of them.

The city then passed under jurisdiction Rumanian E in 1913, in accordance with the Treaty of Saint-Petersbourg who puts a term at the Second war Balkan (that Bulgaria lost), before being reinstated in Bulgaria in 1940. At the end of the Second world war, the Soviet troops enter to Bulgaria by Silistra, and a Soviet tank is still exposed as a memorial on the edges of the Danube.

Culture

The city has two theaters (including one specialized for the children), a gallery and two museums (archaeological and ethnographic). One can see objects there going up at the time of the Thraces. Inside the Othoman fortress built on the heights of the city and recently restored, a historical museum was also inaugurated in 2006.

Industry

Principal industries of Silistra are the transformation of meat products, the textile, the agro-alimentary one and manufacture of brick S. But since the end of Communism, unemployment rate strongly increased.

Demography

The population of Silistra knew a constant growth until the beginning of the year 1990, but the city since then suffers of an important emigration towards the more active urban centres (Sofia, Varna) or towards the foreigner: 42.000 (in 2000), 48.000 (in 1993) 53.500 (in 1985), 48.000 (in 1974), 12.055 (in 1908), 12.133 (in 1900), 11.718 (in 1892).

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