Hotels in Vidin

Town of Vidin (57 614 inhabitants, 20-25 m above sea level) is situated on the bank of the Danube River, on its big curve in the most northwest corner of Bulgaria. It is 199 km to the northwest from Sofia, 102 km northwest from Montana, 52 km north from Belogradchik, 56 km northwest from Lom and 30 km to the southeast from the border town of Bregovo. It is one of the oldest Bulgarian towns. It is a regional administrative centre.

The past of this town dates 23 centuries ago. As early as 3rd century BC the Celts built a settlement here with the name Dounonia (a high and fortified place). The Romans put into final shape the fortress with the purpose to guard the border road along the Danube and named it Bononia. Bulgarians named the town Bdin, and Byzantines - Vidini. In the meantime it was ruined and built again many times. In 1003 Gavril Radomir, the son of the Bulgarian Tsar Samouil, stood the 8-months siege of the Byzantine Emperor Vassilii II. The town reaches the greatest flourishing at the end of 14th century, when it becomes a capital of the Bdin Kingdom of Ivan Sratsimir (1360). It has been a port on the river and an important trade centre of goods not only for domestic needs, but also for transit trade with Vlashko (Romania), Madzharsko, Dubrovnik, etc. A gospel from 1360 says that it was written in “the great and crowded town of Bdin”. The rise of the town ceased in 1396 when the Turks invades it. Since then Bulgaria started counting the 482 dark years of Ottoman rule, the 127195 endless days of persecution, terror, human misery, assimilation and overt genocide.