Pleven, Bulgaria

Pleven is about an hour drive from the Danube. The iron curtain dropped in 1989 and much like Romania it began a slow crawl back from communism.

The countryside has rolling hills. We saw field, after field of young wheat and a vineyard. Approximately 60% of the lands are owned by Bulgarians and the other 40% foreign owners. Most are large farms, and not individuals.

Healthcare is somewhat free. No doctor works on Sunday and the medicine is mainly paid out of pocket. Our guide did get lasik surgery costing him only $150.00.

Fountains filled the main square, they were not working today, but normally put on quite a display. This main square was pedestrian only, it was much nicer than most areas that we saw in Romania.

The Ottomans occupied Bulgaria for about 500 years. When the other European countries decided to drive them out, the war started in Bulgaria. The Russian army was driving through Bulgaria and didn’t want to face the Ottomans along the fortified Black Sea, so they went through central Bulgaria, crossing the Danube near Ruse, which is where we disembarked today. The Russian army drove to Pleven, where the Ottomans were entrenched. The main battle of the Russo-Turkish war occurred at Pleven, which we visited. Following our visit we went to the memorial commemorating this war. The Russians attacked the Ottoman twice suffering great losses. The Russian commander then requested assistance from the Romanian army and King Carl I. He crossed the Danube with the Romanian army and took command of the situation at Pleven. Instead of attacking again, they laid siege to the city, cutting off supplies, food and water to the opposing army. The siege started in July, 1877 and ended in December of that year with the surrender of the Ottoman army.

The memorial commemorates the loss of 50,000 soldiers on both sides and the surrender of 43,000 Ottoman. This was one of the first battles of a mechanized army (Gatling guns, repeating rifles) against a manual army (flint locks, bayonets) resulting in the loss of many, many soldiers. One of the very first Gatling guns ever used in battle was used in this battle.