GFE Stumpes: Pleven, Bulgaria (3/31/2026)

Tuesday, March 31, 2026

Breakfasts on the Viking Rinda were buffet style with an omelet station and you could order eggs any style.

There was also the egg of the day, and a
regional specialty, like this minced meat
Bulgarian banitsa (layered or rolled pastry)
with herbed Balkan feta cheese

Today we continued to sail on the Danube during the morning.

Lunch Starter: Black Bean Soup or...

...Chilled Asparagus Spears & Gribiche Sauce (French
cold sauce made from hard-boiled eggs, mustard, oil,
vinegar and chopped herbs, capers, and cornichons)

Golden Fried Parmesan Crusted Veal Scaloppini or...

...Croque Monsieur/warm ham & cheese sandwich
with mixed greens

Now we are in Bulgaria, and it is difficult to take a photo
of the Viking river longship, because it is so long!

We had an hour's drive on a motor coach,
with frequent sightings of stork nests

Ciconia ciconia/White Stork (KSS)

We have left behind the Romance language of Romanian,
and entered an area of Slavic languages using the Cyrillic
script, this time for the Bulgarian alphabet of 30 letters;
the letters in the photo actually say "Bulgarian"

Wheat fields go on forever on the Danubian Plain,
like in the days of Communism without small farms

We arrived in Pleven, Bulgaria, with itsextensive water
features of cascades and fountains, but this is the off-season

Pleven in Bulgarian Cyrillic

Pleven in Latin script

The first stop was the Централен мол/Central Mall
(2008 reconstruction of existing building) to use restrooms

Паметник на Девета пехотна плевенска дивизия/
Monument to the 9th Infantry Division of Pleven
(2019) with General Vladimir Vazov on top (KSS)

Bulgarian parliamentary elections were coming up
on April 19, so each party had a booth to hand out
campaign literature; note that each candidate has a
number to make it easier to remember for whom to vote

In the elections, apparently 4,786 candidates
from 24 parties were running for 240 seats (KSS)

Параклис-мавзолей Свети Георги Победоносец/
Chapel - Mausoleum St George the Victorious
(1903-1907, by Pencho Koychev in Neo-
Byzantine style) in honor of the Russian and
Romanian soldiers who lost their lives
during the Siege of Pleven in 1877 (KSS)

An eternal flame and the list of squadrons
and their officers; about 31,000 Russians and
4,500 Romanians were wounded or perished

A relief (by Zheko Spiridonov) of St George above
the carved wooden doors (by Ian Travnitski) (KSS)

No photos were allowed in the chapel.

A smoke-free Eternal Flame in the crypt

There are three identical marble sarcophagi
containing the bones of the warriors

The plaque to honor the soldiers of Ukraine

The plaque to honor the soldiers of Moldavia

A plaque to honor the soldiers of Bulgaria

Община Плевен/City Hall

Ready for Easter, which will be April 12th in Bulgaria

Pansies and Grape Hyacinths

Паметник Братска могила/Monument to
Brotherhood (1970, in memory of the fallen
fighters against fascism and capitalism;
today it glorifies the Bulgarian soldiers who
fell in the Russo-Turkish War... (KSS)

...with a Socialist Pietà (1970, by
Valentin Starchev) showing Bulgarian
mothers grieving their sons (KSS)

Battery-operated car rental for kids

Former Turkish Hamam/Bath (c 1900-1905, by Nikola Lazarov
combining Neo-Byzantine, Neo-Moorish, and Ottoman elements)

A surprise stop was the Панорама Плевенска епопея/
Pleven Panorama (1977, by Nikolai Ovechkin), created
by eleven Russian and two Bulgarian artists in honor of
the centennial of the surrender of Turkish forces to
Russian and Romanian troops, ending the siege on Pleven

It is located on the site upon which the
deciding battle of the five-month siege
on the city occurred

All the artifacts were found on the battlefield

A series of painting lead up to the Panorama;
Ottoman Yoke (by Nikolai Ovechkin), at the
end of the 14th century Bulgarian lands came
under the rule of the Ottoman Empire (KSS)

The April Uprising of April 1876 (by
Nikolai Ovechkin); the poorly armed rebels
had no chance against modern weapons

Manifestation in St Petersburg in Defense of
the Bulgarian People (by Nikolai Ovechkin
and Vyacheslav Lemeshev); the brutal
suppression of the April Uprising attracted
the attention of the rest of the world including
the Russian public and Tsar Alexander II (KSS)

The Battle for the Samara Banner (by
Nikolai Ovechkin); with the help of Russian
soldiers, Bulgarian volunteers were able
to repulse the superior Turkish Army

Forcing of the Danube River by the Russian
Troops (by Nikolai Ovechkin and I Kabanov);
the Russians are coming!

The 360-degree panorama is 115 m/377' around and 15 m/
49' tall with a 12 m/39' foreground; this section
shows the city of Pleven in the distance

On the horizon you can see Russian General Mikhail Skobelev
who always wore a white uniform and rode a white horse

Foreground trenches with original equipment

Panorama (KSS)

Retreat of the Ottomans over the Vit River

Capitulation (by Mitrofan Grekov
Studio) depicts the surrender of
Field Marshal Osman Pasha (KSS)

Weapons used by the Russians included
Berdan 1 (1868) and 2 (1870) rifles designed
by American inventor Hiram Berdan

Gatling Automatic Gun was invented by Richard J Gatling
in 1861 and patented in 1862, and was the first successful
rapid-fire machine gun, but it was hand-cranked (KSS)