Silistra (Bulgarian: Силистра [siˈlistrɐ]; Turkish: Silistre; Romanian: Silistra or Dârstor) is a town in Northeastern Bulgaria. The town lies on the southern bank of the lower Danube river, and is also the part of the Romanian border where it stops following the Danube. Silistra is the administrative center of the Silistra Province and one of the important towns of the historical region of Dobruja.
Silistra is a major cultural, industrial, transportation, and educational center of Northeastern Bulgaria. There are many historical landmarks including a richly-decorated Late Roman tomb, remains of the medieval fortress, an Ottoman fort, and an art gallery.
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Etymology
The name Silistra is possibly derived from the root of the old Thracian name of the lower part of the Danube "Istrum" (Ίστρος in Ancient Greek)
The name of the city is given as Silistria in the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition.
Geography
Silistra is in the northeastern part of Bulgaria on the southern bank of the Danube River. It is located in the Bulgarian part of Dobruja.
The municipality of Silistra covers an area of 516 km2 and includes the town and 18 villages. The area of the city proper is 27.159 km2.
Silistra is 431 km from Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria; 141 km from Varna; and 119 km from Ruse.
Climate
Silistra has a temperate climate, with cold snowy winters and hot summers.
History
After the Roman province of Moesia was founded in 12 AD, the Romans built a fort in 29 on the site of an earlier Thracian settlement and kept its name, Durostorum (or Dorostorum). During the reigns of Claudius (41-54 AD) and Nero (54-68), the eastern border of Moesia was extended to the mouth of the river Iatrus (the modern Yantra). Durostorum was one of several important river points along the Moesian Limes frontier. After Trajan's Dacian Wars the fort was enlarged into a legionary fortress for the Legio XI Claudia who stayed there from before 114 until c. 400. It became an important military centre of the Roman province of Moesia, and grew into a city at the time of Marcus Aurelius. The city was strongly affected by an invasion of the Costoboci in 170.
Large thermal baths have been discovered in the canabae and residential buildings to the south. There were six periods of construction between the 2nd and 4th centuries AD.
When the Roman Empire split into the Eastern and Western empires, the town became part of the Eastern Roman Empire.
Durostorum became the seat of a Christian bishopric and a centre of Christianity in the region. The earliest saints of Bulgaria are Roman soldiers executed at Durostorum during the Diocletian Persecution (303–313), including St. Dasius and St. Julius the Veteran. Auxentius was expelled from Durostorum by an edict of Theodosius depriving Arian bishops in 383, and took refuge at Milan where he became embroiled in controversy with St Ambrose. The Roman general Flavius Aëtius was born in the town in 396.
As part of the Bulgarian Empire Durostolon was known as Drastar in medieval times.
Around the end of the 7th century, the town was incorporated into the First Bulgarian Empire and the bishop of Drastar (Дръстър in Bulgarian) was proclaimed the first patriarch of Bulgaria. In 895 (during the Bulgarian-Hungarian War of 894–896), the Hungarians, allies of the Byzantines, besieged the Bulgarian army under the personal command of Simeon I the Great in the fortress of the town but were repulsed. The next year the Hungarians were decisively defeated in the battle of Southern Buh.
Population
In January 2012, Silistra was inhabited by 35,230 people within the city limits, while the Silistra Municipality along with the legally affiliated adjacent villages had 50,780 inhabitants. The number of the residents of the city (not the municipality) reached its peak in the period 1986–1991, when it exceeded 70,000. The following table presents the change of the population after 1887.
Ethnic, linguistic and religious composition
According to the latest 2011 census data, the individuals declared their ethnic identity were distributed as follows:
Bulgarians: 29,677 (88.3%)
Turks: 3,458 (10.3%)
Romani: 123 (0.4%)
Others: 190 (0.6%)
Indefinable: 180 (0.5%)
Undeclared: 1,979 (5.6%)
Total: 35,607
Notable people
Flavius Aetius (396–454), a Roman general, defeated Attila the Hun
Parteniy Pavlovich (c. 1695–1760), cleric, author of the first autobiography in South Slavic literature
Süleyman Hilmi Tunahan (1888–1959), Islamic scholar and mystic
Marcel Dinu (1935–2019), Romanian diplomat
Orfi (1943–1999), magician
Yıldız İbrahimova (1952–), jazz singer
Veselin Metodiev (1957–), former minister of culture
Denislav Kalchev (1973–), swimmer
Twin towns – sister cities
Silistra is twinned with:
Veles, North Macedonia
Dunaújváros, Hungary
Dresden, Germany
Leskovac, Serbia
Lüleburgaz, Turkey
Slobozia, Romania
Lida, Belarus
Óbuda-Békásmegyer, Hungary
Honour
Silistra Knoll on Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica is named after Silistra.
"Silistra" is also the name of a fictional planet in Janet Morris' book High Couch of Silistra (1977).