Portal:Bulgaria/Selected article/15

Pleven (Bulgarian: Плевен) is the seventh most populated town in Bulgaria. It is located in the northern part of the country and is the capital of the Pleven Province as well as of the subordinate Pleven Municipality.

Pleven is located in an agricultural region in the very heart of the Danube Plain, the historical region of Moesia, surrounded by low limestone hills. Its central location in Northern Bulgaria defines its importance as a big administrative, economic, political, cultural and transport centre. The town is located 170 km away from the capital city of Sofia, 320 km west of the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast and 50 km south of the Danube.

The city was a major battle scene (see the Siege of Pleven) during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878 that the Russian tsar Alexander II held for the purpose of liberation of Bulgaria. The joint Russian and Romanian army paid dearly for the victory, but it paved the path to the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in this war, and the restoration of Bulgaria as a state.