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 ( 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. The town
was captured by the forces of
Sviatoslav I of Kiev in 969, but two years later it was taken by the Byzantines during the
Battle of Dorostolon. In 976, Tsar
Samuel restored Bulgarian rule in the region until 1001, when it once again became part of the Byzantine Empire as
Dristra. Emperor
Alexios I Komnenos suffered a defeat at Dristra to the
Pechenegs in 1087. In 1186, after the
Rebellion of Asen and Peter, the town became part of the Second
Bulgarian Empire and renamed Drastar. In 1279, under Emperor
Ivailo, Drastar was attacked by the
Mongols; but after a three-month-long siege the Bulgarians managed to break through. The town remained part of the Bulgarian Empire until the
Ottoman conquest of the Balkans around 1400. Throughout the Middle Ages, Drastar (possibly known by the name Silistra too) was among Bulgaria's largest and most important cities. During
Ottoman rule, Silistra (
Ottoman Turkish: ) was part of
Rumelia Province and was the administrative centre of the Silistra district (
sanjak). This district was later upgraded to become the
Silistra Province and stretched over most of the western
Black Sea littoral. In 1570 (
Hijri 977) the town of Silistra was inhabited by Muslims and Christians. It had 447 Muslim households in 20 neighbourhoods and 633 Non-muslim households in 15 neighbourhoods. The defter also recorded that there was a Jewish and a Christian Romani congregation. The town was captured and recaptured by
Russian forces numerous times during several
Russo-Turkish Wars and was besieged between 14 April and 23 June 1854 during the
Crimean War.
Namık Kemal wrote his most famous play,
Vatan Yahut Silistre ("Homeland or Silistre"), a drama about the
siege of Silistra (
Silistria), in which he expounded on the ideas of patriotism and liberalism. The play was first staged on 1 April 1873 and led to his exile to
Famagusta. The Ottoman Silistra Province was reduced in size, as the districts of
Özi and
Hocabey and the region of
Bessarabia were ceded to the Russian Empire at the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century. Edirne Province was created from its southern regions in 1830. Finally, Silistra Province merged with the provinces of
Vidin and
Niš in 1864 to form
Danube Province. Silistra was downgraded to a
kaza centre in
Ruse district in this province in the same year. Between 1819 and 1826,
Eliezer Papo — a renowned
Jewish scholar — was the
rabbi of the community of Silistra, making this town famous among observant Jews. Up to the present, his grave is a focus of
pilgrimage, some pilgrims flying from
Israel and even from
Latin America to Bulgaria for that purpose. In 1878, following the
Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878, Silistra was included in Bulgaria.
Romania was opposed to this as it wanted to acquire the city and established the short-lived
Silistra Nouă County, which was abolished a year later. In May 1913, as the
First Balkan War was winding down, tensions between Bulgaria and both
Greece and
Serbia that ultimately led to the
Second Balkan War were escalating and after unsuccessful negotiations between Bulgaria and Romania in
London, the two countries accepted the mediation of the
Great Powers, who awarded Silistra and the area in a 3 km radius around it to Romania at the
Saint Petersburg Conference. The 1913
Treaty of Bucharest following the Second Balkan War confirmed Romanian possession of Silistra and moved the border further away, with Bulgaria ceding the whole of
Southern Dobruja to
Romania which had conquered it during the war. Bulgaria regained
de facto control of the town in 1916 during
World War I. This became finalised with the
Treaty of Bucharest in 1918 after Romania surrendered to the
Central Powers (of which Bulgaria was a part). The
Treaty of Neuilly (1919) following
World War I returned Silistra and the rest of Dobruja to Romania. The town remained a part of Romania until the
Axis-sponsored
Treaty of Craiova in 1940, when Southern Dobruja including Silistra once again became part of Bulgaria, a transfer confirmed by the
Paris Peace Treaties in 1947. Between 1913 and 1938, Silistra was the capital of
Durostor County (except during Bulgarian rule). It became part of
Ținutul Mării ("Sea District") between 1938 and 1940 during Romanian rule. Following the establishment of the People's Republic of Bulgaria, Silistra developed as a center of industry and agriculture in the region, comparable to Ruse (because of the strategic position on the Danube) and Dobrich (due to the abundant fertile lands). This led to a major population increase which continued until 1985. After that, the population slowly started to decrease. Following the collapse of the People's Republic in 1989, many of its inhabitants migrated to other parts of the country or emigrated outside Bulgaria. == Population ==