Vidin, Bulgaria I (4/1/2026)

Wednesday, April 1, 2026

The breakfast special was a poached egg on perhaps a
Rodopski Kolatsi/Bulgarian Rhodope cake, with guacamole

From the breakfast menu, a Salmon Benedict

We ventured off on our own, having been to Vidin in 2021. Lucked out with a sunny day!

Tamiko is trying to form a 'B' for the missing 'V' in Vidin

Паметник на българските опълченци/
Monument of Bulgarian Volunteer Soldiers
who fought in the Serbo-Bulgarian War (1885)

Вида драматичен театър/Vida Drama Theater (1890) was
the first purpose-built theater in Bulgaria that opened in 1891

Building and clock at Ulitsa Gradinska 1А,
the beginning of the pedestrian Gradinska Street

Pedestrian Gradinska Street

Паметник на трети пехотен Бдински полк/
Monument to the Third Bdina Infantry Regiment
(1944, by Georgi Staykov, sculpture by
Nikola Kozhuharov) is dedicated not only to
the Third Bdina Infantry Regiment of the
Serbo-Bulgarian War, but to all volunteers
fallen in the wars for national unification
(the Balkan Wars and the First World War)

Toma Lazanov Building was built after liberation (1878)
from the Ottoman Empire, in an Eclectic Viennese-inspired style 

Relief over the entrance toКметство Видин/Vidin City Hall
that was built during the Communist era 

Florist with artificial flowers for now in
the real bougainvillea vines

Паметника на загиналите във Втората
световна война/Monument to those
who died in World War II

Катедрален храм Св вмчк Димитър Солунски/
Cathedral of St Dimitar of Thessaloniki (1884-1926)
is the second largest church in Bulgaria and is named for
the patron saint of Vidin, aka St Demetrius

The cathedral is under renovation and
one of the domes is being covered with copper

Vidin is known for preserving Ottoman era buildings,
such as this former police station (18C) rebuilt with Bulgarian
Renaissance decoration and now the Исторически музей
Конака/Konaka History Museum (est 1956) (KSS)

Statue of Tsar Simeon I (Veliki) in front of
a high school with his name; he was the
ruler of the First Bulgarian Empire (893-927)

A coffee vending machine, which seems
to include milk and chocolate

Soviet Lada VAZ-2101 (produced 1970-1982)

Паметникът на Жул Паскин/ Monument to
Jules Pascin, a Jewish painter and printmaker
who was born in Vidin in 1885

Cats at Църква Света Петка/St Petka Church;
oops, one is escaping (KSS)

Църква Света Петка/St Petka Church (1634-1636);
in 1806 the Ottomans converted it into a warehouse for coal

Кръстата казарма/Cross Barracks (1801, by the Ottomans
as headquarters for the Janissaries, an elite infantry troops and
personal bodyguard of the Ottoman sultans, forming the
first modern standing army in Europe; however the soldiers
were recruited through the devşirme system, a child levy that
took young Christian boys from the Balkans, converted them
 to Islam, and trained them for absolute loyalty to the state

AI states this is a Soviet-era bus stop, but agrees
it could have been a gas station although it resembles 
bus stops once found throughout Bulgaria (KSS)

Паметникът на свободата/Monument of

Freedom (1965, by Hristo Simeonov, Metodi

Izmerliev, Ivan Tatarov in Brutalist style),

with a statue of a woman, a symbolic image

of Victory and regained Freedom (KSS)

Three sculptural relief groups are part of the monument

Видинска крепост/Baba Vida Fortress (10C, 12-14C) is the only
medieval fortress that has been preserved in its original form (KSS)

Baba Vida as seen from the Danube River; the name
means 'Grandma Vida' and it was built by the daughter of a
wealthy boyar/Bulgarian nobleman, who never married (KSS)

Statue in the rose garden near Baba Vida Fortress (KSS)

Powder magazine of the fortress, which was used as a
weapon warehouse and prison during Ottoman rule

Археологически музей/Archaeological Museum is
located in an Ottoman warehouse used to store grain
that was collected as tax from the local Bulgarian people

Next: More Vidin.