Rousse
Rousse is a town in the north of Bulgaria. Known for its beautiful Baroque buildings which earned it the nickname "Bulgarian Vienna". Rousse is the fifth largest city in the country and the largest river port as well as a significant economic financial and cultural center.
Rousse is located on the southern bank of the Danube at the border of Bulgaria and Romania. The city is 75 km from Bucharest and 310 km from Sofia. has a temperate continental climate with warm summers and relatively cool winters.
Rousse was founded about 2,000 years ago. In the 1st century AD. The Romans built a fortified settlement and a river port here. The fortress was an important strategic point on the road leading to the Danube Delta and the Black Sea. In the middle of the 3rd century the Roman settlement was destroyed by the Goths. Then the Romans restored the defensive structure which in the 4th century was destroyed by Thracian tribes. In the 9th - 10th centuries on the Roman ruins the Bulgarians built a new fortress and named it Russe.
History
In the 14th century, Ruse was conquered by the Ottoman Empire and renamed Rushchuk. The Ottomans built a powerful fortress here which was an important outpost on the lands between the Danube valley and the Balkans. All of Rushchuk's fortifications were destroyed in the 19th century. Rousse was annexed to Bulgaria after the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78 and regained its historical name.
Sights
The historical center of Rousse is famous for its beautiful neo-baroque buildings, built in the 19th - early 20th centuries.
It is best to start exploring the city center with Freedom Square - the largest and most beautiful square in Rousse. The architectural dominant here is the Freedom Monument which depicts a female figure clutching a sword in her left hand and with her right hand indicating the direction the liberators came from. At the base of the monument are two lions. One breaks the chains of slavery and the other protects Bulgaria's freedom. The statue was made in 1909 by the Italian sculptor Arnold Zokki.
The apartment building is a magnificent neo-baroque building that rises above the western edge of Liberty Square. It was built in 1902 by Viennese architects and was used as a theater, casino, public library, art gallery and shopping center.
Nearby is a neoclassical courthouse built in 1940 on the site of an old fish market. To its left is a bright opera house built in 1949.
From Freedom Square you should go to Alexander Street which houses beautiful 19th-century baroque buildings and a history museum. The Museum of History contains exhibits of Roman period, Thracian culture, the Middle Ages and modern Bulgarian history.
Within walking distance of the center of Rousse on the hill above the Danube are the ruins of the Roman fortress Sexaginta Prista founded in the 1st century AD. To this day parts of the northern fortress wall rectangular defense tower and army barracks have survived. Archaeological excavations also revealed traces of a Thracian settlement of the 1st century BC.
The Pantheon of National Heroes is a memorial complex containing the remains of 453 fighters of Bulgarian national revival many of whom were natives of Rousse. The memorial was opened in 1978 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Bulgaria's liberation.
Holy Trinity Church is a small religious building built in 1632. Interestingly the church was built in the Ottoman period so it is modest in size. The bell was added much later. The church has a beautiful iconostasis of gilded wood and wooden columns painted in marble, as well as well-preserved icons.
The Orthodox Church of St. Paraskeva of Serbia is a significant rotunda in the style of Byzantine architecture built between 1939 and 1944.
St. Paul's Cathedral is a Catholic church in the style of Gothic Revival with elements of brick gothic built in 1890 by the Italian architect Valentino. The interior contains beautiful sculptures and stained glass windows.
