Ruse

Battenberg Palace

Ruse (Bulgarian: Русе, also romanized as Rousse) is a port city on the Danube in North Bulgaria. The fifth largest Bulgarian city, it's one of the two main river crossings to Romania, and its rich legacy of fin-de-siècle European architecture calls back to the time when Ruse was one of the most developed and cosmopolitan cities in Bulgaria.

Understand

The city's name is pronounced with two syllables - ROO-seh. In 19th-century sources, it shows up with the Turkish form of the name - Rustchuk (roos-CHOOK, Turkish: Rusçuk), including in the 1911 edition of Encyclopaedia Britannica.

With a population of more than 120,000 (2021), Ruse is the fifth largest Bulgarian city (after Burgas), and the administrative centre of Ruse Province. By area, it's one of the smallest provinces of Bulgaria, and it has no other settlements larger than 10,000 people. The next sizeable settlements along the Danube are the towns of Tutrakan to the east (in Silistra Province) and Svishtov to the west (in Veliko Tarnovo Province).

History

During the late Ottoman era, Ruse gradually rose to prominence as a port for the river steamships that carried out the trade with Europe along the Danube. Another boon followed in the 1860s when the first railway line in what would be later Bulgaria was built between Ruse and the seaport city of Varna. The railway allowed goods from Central Europe to be moved quickly across the strip of land between the river and the sea and loaded onto sea ships bound to Istanbul and the rest of Asia Minor, thus avoiding a lengthy detour north through the Danube Delta. Ruse was also important militarily. Since the 18th century, it had been a part of the "quadrilateral of fortresses" Ruse—Silistra—Varna—Shumen, a quartet of fortified cities that guarded the corner of the Ottoman Empire in Europe that was closest to the Russian Empire. The Ruse Fortress saw action in the Russo-Turkish wars of 1828–29, 1853–54 (the Crimean War), and 1877–78 (the Liberation War of Bulgaria). Ruse's development and proximity to semi-independent, modernizing Romania "next door" also had given the city a large role in the Bulgarian National Revival and the struggle for Bulgarian liberation from Ottoman rule. Famous National Revival figures from Ruse include "grandma" Tonka Obretenova and her children: she herself, her five sons, and one of her daughters were revolutionaries; her other daughter was a schoolteacher... who married another famous revolutionary of the period, Zahari Stoyanov.

Immediately after the Liberation (1878), Ruse was the most economically and culturally developed city in Bulgaria. Back then the Principality of Bulgaria consisted only of Northern Bulgaria and the region of Sofia, and the new capital had been a relative backwater. In the first census (1881), Ruse was the largest city in Bulgaria, with Varna being the second. This would change with the Unification of 1885, which added most of Southern Bulgaria including the large and populous Plovdiv. Nevertheless, the concentration of trade and capital in Ruse lead to further economic and industrial development. A large number of commercial and public buildings were constructed in that period, influenced by Central European architecture, in styles such as Neo-Baroque, Neo-Rococo, Neoclassical, and Art Noveau.

Ruse took a heavy hit with the loss of Southern Dobruja in the Second Balkan War and the First World War. A large part of the trade had been grain exports from the fertile fields of Dobrudzha, and it had also provided a market for the products imported or manufactured in the city. Dobrudzha was regained in the 1940s, but by that time the focus of development in Bulgaria has already spread elsewhere, and railways had been chipping away at river trade.

Under the Communist regime, the first bridge between Bulgaria and Romania was opened by Ruse in 1954. Originally named "The Bridge of Friendship" (Most(at) na druzhbata), it was commonly called simply "Danube bridge" (Dunav most) and it would remain the only bridge between the two countries for more than 50 years, until the opening of the New Europe Bridge in 2013, between Vidin and Calafat.

Modern Ruse remains an important economic, financial and cultural hub in Northern Bulgaria. It's remains the country's largest river port, and a major border crossing.

Read

Bulgaria can claim only one Nobel Prize winner: Elias Canetti (1905-1994), a writer of Sephardic Jewish descent who was born in Ruse and won the Prize for Literature in 1981. His celebrated memoir The Tongue Set Free (1977) tells of his childhood in Ruse, before his family moved to Manchester and then Vienna when he was 11-12. There's a bust monument of him downtown, and his father's commercial building (built 1898) is used by the International Elias Canetti Society and hosts various artistic events.

Tourist information

• Tourst Information Centre (Туристически информационен център) (on the street that exits the central Svoboda Sqr to the north-east, close to the square), ☏ +359 82 824 704, office@visitruse.info. M-F 9:00-18:00, Sa 9:30-18:00. Small street-level office sandwiched between two shops. The link is to Ruse's official tourist information page, but as of late 2024 the English version is broken - use machine translation on the Bulgarian version, or the site below. (updated Sep 2024)
• Visit Bulgaria: Ruse, the city's page in the official tourism portal of Bulgaria (in English, German, Russian)

Get in

Catholic Eparchy building

Ruse is located on the South bank of the Danube, across from the Romanian city of Giurgiu. By road, the city is about 200 km from Varna and 300 km from Sofia. From Romania, a bridge connects Ruse to Giurgiu, which until 2013, when the bridge in Vidin was completed, was serving as the westernmost land connection between the two countries. If you intend to cross the border from Giurgiu, an €3 (~6 Bulgarian Leva, 13 Romanian Lei) per car crossing tax applies each way.

The closest international airport is 75 km north, in Bucharest, in neighboring Romania - a shuttle bus connects the airport to the city once a day. Alternative airports are Sofia and Varna.

The city is well served by railroads, with multiple connections to Sofia and Varna, but also to Bucharest (2x daily, but note that the train is rather expensive - €25, and very slow, taking about 3 hours for the journey), Budapest, Kyiv, Moscow, Athens and Istanbul. The train station is at the southern end of Borisova Avenue, south of the city centre.

• 1 Central Railway Station (Централна ЖП гара, Tsentralna Zhe-Pe gara), 1 Aleksandar Stamboliyski Sqr (2 km (1.2 mi) almost exactly south of the central square, along Borisova Str). An imposing, ornate building with a clock tower, built in 1955. As Ruse is a major transport hub, it has several railway stations, so make sure that you ask for the right one. (updated Apr 2023)

Buses also link Ruse to the rest of Bulgaria (different frequencies daily), places in Greece (daily) and to Giurgiu (twice daily) and Bucharest (twice daily at 12:30 and 15:30, takes 1 hour and 30 min and costs 20 лв, drop at Piața Unirii). The bus station is located next to the train station.

Danube cruises generally stop at Ruse harbour.

It is also possible to cross the border without paying the tax by walking the crossing.(See the DO section)

See

Aleksandrovska Str, leaving Svoboda Sqr

• 1 National Transport Museum, 5 Bratya Obretenovy Str (on the bank of the river, directly north of the Youth Park (Mladezhki Park), 25 min walk north-east of the central square). 9:00-17:00, closed: Sa-Su (Nov-Mar), Su-M (Apr-Oct). A railway museum in the building and rail yard of Ruse's old railway station. Exhibits include steam locomotives and luxury rail cars that were used by various history figures.  
• 2NOT EXISTING LISTING IMAGE Regional Historical Museum (Battenberg Palace). Ruse's Regional Historical Museum is one of the 11 regional museums of Bulgaria. It acts within the Ruse, Razgrad, and Silistra regions. The museum occupies the building of the former Battenberg Palace, previously a local court, built 1879–1882 by Friedrich Grünanger. The Ruse Regional Historical Museum was established in 1904. Its basis are the archaeological collections of Karel and Hermenguild Shkorpil, as well as of the naturalist Vasil Kovachev, which were gathered in the "Knyaz Boris" men's high school of Ruse. The museum holds approximately 140,000 items, including: prehistoric pottery and idol plastic arts. The museum features seven full-time exhibitions, three of them being open-air: the Rock-hewn Churches of Ivanovo, the Medieval city of Cherven and the Roman castle of Sexaginta Prista.  
• 3 EcoMuseum and Aquarium, 3 Etar Str (directly north of the History Museum). 9:00-18:00. A natural history museum that opened in 2014, which explains the modern interior. Exhibits include animal taxidermy (some can be touched), dioramas of natural habitats, several large aquariums with sweet-water fish, a terrarium with reptiles, extinct mammal fossils (and a mock-up of a woolly mammoth), and what can be only described as the "miscellaneous" section of the history museum (from musical instruments to weights and measures). Adults: 10 лв, students: 5 лв, various other discounts apply; guided tour (in English): 25 лв.. (updated Apr 2023)
• 4NOT EXISTING LISTING IMAGE Pantheon of National Revival Heroes (Пантеон на възрожденците). A Bulgarian national monument and an ossuary. 39 famous Bulgarians are buried in it, including Lyuben Karavelov, Zahari Stoyanov, Stefan Karadzha, Panayot Hitov, Tonka Obretenova, Nikola Obretenov, Panayot Volov, Angel Kanchev, etc.; 453 more people—participants in Botev's detachment, the Chervena Voda detachment, in the April uprising, and other revolutionaries have been honoured by writing their names in the interior. An eternal fire burns in the middle under the gold-plated dome. The Pantheon is one of the 100 Tourist Sites of Bulgaria. In order to build the Pantheon in 1977, the "All Saints" church in the old Ruse cemetery was demolished. The new building was open for visitors on 28 February 1978. After a public discussion in 2001, the Pantheon was "Christianised" by placing a cross on top of its dome. The "St Paisius of Hilendar" chapel, as well as a museum exposition, were founded then.  
• 5 Kaliopa House (Къщата на Калиопа), 39 Tzar Ferdinand St.. A popular name for the Bulgarian "Urban lifestyle of Ruse" museum (Bulgarian: Къща-музей „Градския бит на Русе“), was built in 1864. According to a legend, the house was bestowed upon the beautiful Kaliopa (born Maria Kalish), the wife of the Prussian consul Kalish, by the governor of the Danubian Vilayet, Midhat Pasha, who was in love with her. The façade's design resembles the style of houses in Plovdiv. The frescoes at the upper floor were crafted in 1896. The exposition represents the role of Ruse as a gateway towards Europe, and the influx of European urban culture into Bulgaria at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. Sample interior layouts are shown, of a drawing-room, a living-room, a music hall and a bedroom, with furniture from Vienna, as well as collections of urban clothing, of jewellery and other accessories, of silver cutlery and porcelain, which mark the changes present in the daily life of Ruse citizens. The first grand piano imported into Bulgaria from Vienna, can be seen here.  

Do

• You can cross the border on foot for free. While it's possible, the bridge was not made with pedestrians in mind and the "sidewalks" are little more than maintenance catwalks. The border patrol checks passports and ID on both sides and it takes about 15 minutes to walk. However, the bridge itself is far from both the town of Ruse and Giurgiu and reaching it may require a taxi or hitch-hiking. You can take buses 11 or 25 from Pantheon bus stop to arrive to the bridge.

Drink

• PublixCafe, Dondukov-Korsakov 19 Str.. Well known cafe in Ruse. 

Sleep

• 1 The English Guesthouse, 34 Rayko Daskalov St, ☏ +359 828-75577, Babatonka@gmail.com. Twin beds for 60 лв (you can bargain down to 50 лв if stay more than 3days). The lady manager is friendly and will help you in anything. A breakfast buffet included for all the guests, and free wifi. From 35 лв for a single person per night with shared bathroom up to 80 лв for 5 people sharing one room per night. (updated Oct 2023)

Nearby

Basarbovo

Basarbovo (Басарбово) is a village 8 km (5.0 mi) south of Ruse that lies directly on Road 501, which in turn branches off E85/Road 5 close to where it exits Ruse.

• 6 Basarbovo Monastery (St. Dimitar Basarbovski Monastery) (the road leading to the monastery branches from Road 501 in the village, just north of the bridge where 501 crosses the river). A functioning Eastern Orthodox monastery named after a local saint, Dimitar of Basarbovo. Probably the only "rock-hewn"/cliff-side/cave monastery that remains in operation in Bulgaria, although nowadays the monks' dormitory is at the base on the cliffs, and the cells carved high up in the cliff face are used as chapels and tombs. (updated Apr 2023)

Ivanovo

The rock-hewn churches of Ivanovo

Ivanovo (Иваново) is a village of 800 people, 20 km (12 mi) south of Ruse, notable for the UNESCO World Heritage Site described below. It can be reached by train from Ruse (several times a day, 25 min travel time). By car, it requires either following Road 501 further south from Basarbovo, or taking the larger E85 and then turning east at the appropriate crossroads (marked with a pillar-like monument). The churches are within a protected area, Nature Park Rusenski Lom (lit. 'Lom of Ruse'), which encompasses several canyons formed by the river and its tributaries as they snake through low, wood-covered hills.

• 7 The Rock-hewn Churches of Ivanovo (Ивановски скални църкви, Ivanovski skalni tsarkvi) (paved road starts at the northern end of the village, heading east for 4.6 km (2.9 mi); there's a parking lot at the base of the cliffs). A group of monolithic churches, chapels and monasteries hewn out of solid rock in the high rocky banks of the Rusenski Lom, 32 m above the river. The complex is notable for its well-preserved medieval frescoes, the best preserved medieval rock/cave/cliff monastery in Bulgaria. (updated Oct 2016)

The caves in the region had been inhabited by monks from the 1220s, when it was founded by the future Patriarch of Bulgaria Joachim, to the 17th century, where they hewed cells, churches and chapels out of solid rock. At the peak of the monastery complex, the number of churches was about 40, while the other premises were around 300, most of which are not preserved today.

Second Bulgarian Empire rulers such as Ivan Alexander and Ivan Asen II frequently made donations to the complex, as evidenced by donor portraits in some of the churches. Other patrons included nobles from the capital Tarnovo and nearest big medieval town Cherven, with which the monastery complex had strong ties in the 13-th and 14-th century. It was a centre of hesychasm in the Bulgarian lands in the 14th century and continued to exist in the early centuries of the Ottoman rule of Bulgaria, but gradually decayed.

The monastery complex owes much of its fame to 13th- and 14th-century frescoes, preserved in 5 of the churches, which are thought of as wonderful examples of Bulgarian mediaeval art. The rock premises used by the monks include the St Archangel Michael Chapel ("The Buried Church"), the Baptistery, the Gospodev Dol Chapel, the St Theodore Church ("The Demolished Church") and the main Church, with the 14th-century murals in the latter one being arguably the most famous of all in Ivanovo and noted as some of the most representative examples of Palaeologan art. Many century-old inscriptions have also been preserved in the monastical premises, including the famous indented inscription of the monk Ivo Gramatik from 1308–1309.

The Rock-hewn Churches of Ivanovo were included in the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1979.

Cherven

Червен (Червен) is a small village 30 km (19 mi) south of Ruse. Its name means "red" in masculine form, and the village either got its name from the medieval fortress, or the other way round. Cherven can be reached by train, if you get off at Koshov ('Кошов', three trains daily, 30 min from Ruse), but you'll have to walk almost 9 km (5.6 mi) to the fortress. By car, Cherven is on a single-lane rural road that branches off Road 501 south of Ivanovo and continues east to merge into Road 202. Afterwards, you can either backtrack to Road 501 to get back onto E85, or follow Road 202 south to Popovo and Targovishte, or continue east towards Razgrad (see that article for detailed instructions).

• 8 Cherven Fortress (paved road starts from the northern part of the village, branching off the main road when the latter takes a sharp turn to the east on the north side of the bridge). The ruins of a large medieval fortified town, on a meander of the Cherni Lom river (lit. 'Black Lom'), surrounded by cliffs on almost all sides. There's a parking lot with a ticket office and a coffee shop at the base, and a staircase leads to the ruins. Among the ruins, there's an unusually well preserved (by Bulgarian standards...) square tower, and a church with remnants of floor mosaics (protected by a modern roof). Nice panoramic views of the scenic landscape, good for drone photography. Try finding the well that has siege engine ammunition on its bottom (large stone balls). (updated Apr 2023)

Go next

• Leaving Bulgaria: Bucharest, the capital of Romania, is 70 km (43 mi) to the north
• Along the Danube:
  • to the east, Tutrakan and Silistra
  • to the west, the small towns of Svishtov and Nikopol (and between them, Belene, the notorious site of a Communist-era penal labour camp on an island in the Danube that still serves as a prison)
• To the south-east: Razgrad, Shumen and Varna
  • You can make a detour through Isperih and the Thracian Tomb of Sveshtari (a UNESCO World Heritage Site) and rejoin the route at Razgrad
• To the south-west: Pleven or Veliko Tarnovo
• If you've followed Road 501 south to visit Basarbovo, Ivanovo and/or Cherven (see above), other small roads can put you back on track to either of the two options above, or further south to Popovo and Targovishte

Routes through Ruse

Giurgiu ← Danube Bridge ←	W  E	→ Razgrad → Shumen
Merges with (W) ←	N  S	→ Veliko Tarnovo → Stara Zagora