THE HISTORY OF ROUSSE

     The high bank at Ruse was very convenient for man in the 4-th millennium BC. As the tell was most typical of the prehistoric settlement, that found at the present sugar refinery, 13 metres high, 20 metres wide and 70 metres long, it enclosed stratigraphic evidence from three ages of prehistory: the Stone, Bronze and Copper Age. As Ruse district had early inhabitants and a very eventful history, it was a real Eldorado for archaeological expeditions whose successful work throughout the years has materialized in the Archaeological Museum that Karel and Herman Skorpil created. The famous treasure from Borovo is the most valuable exhibit.

     Thracians of the tribe Getae settled in Ruse district in the 6-th century BC; it was not long before they felt the Roman expansion for the empire built up a military presence in the basin of the Lower Danube year after year. While Nero was the emperor the legions here were five; a century later Marcus Aurelius made them 12. The ancient station must have been established under Vespasianus (69-79). The Roman name of the city was Sexaginta Prista, the Port of the Sixty Ships. That name occurs on a Roman inscription of 100-101 and on the milestones from the period of the emperors Antonius Pius, Marcus Aurelius and Aurelianus. The stones marked where the main roads started from the fort - to Marcianopolis, Nove and Durostorum. Excavations have produced evidence that during Trajanus' campaign against the Dacians that was the main base of his warships. Sexaginta Prista was put on the Roman map of military routes Tabula Pointingeriana that Marcus Agrippa drew in the 1-st century. A copy of that map has been found in the Calmar Monastery in Southern Sweden. The geography of Claudius Ptolemy, an Alexandrian geographer who lived during the reign of Marcus Aurelius and who is mentioned in the Constantinopolitan "Historia Ecclesiastica", gives an extensive description of the city. Procopius of Caesarea has also recorded it. Prista is the name used in the Notitiae Tagniatum of the anonymous cosmographer from Ravenna. In the 6-th century Justinian solidly fortified it and the place became a key component of the Byzantine defence system which, however, surrendered to the barbarian waves. For centuries after the woeful shadow of destruction haunted the place and there was not a city.

     The Bulgarian feudal state had an economy in kind and insignificant trade, so the settlement on the big river was almost derelict. The fort was in Cherven and the fortification was similar to that in Veliko Turnovo. It was the centre of the fortified areas in the basin of the Rusenski Lom where Skorpil counted 48 forts altogether. Evidently the city that was re-established on the site derived its present name from Cherven four "rous" is a synonym of "cherven" (red) which is an adjective in all Slavic languages and cognate to the Latin "rusos" and the French "rouge". The Turks who liked the city very much used a diminutive form, Roustchouk. After the conversion of Bulgaria to Christianity Cherven became the see of a bishopric and was in its heyday in the 14-th century; a watch tower, remains of a citadel, streets, 11 churches, cisterns and a tunnel to a karst spring have survived. Cherven was a famous centre of arms production and of brisk trade where many foreigners arrived, mainly from Dubrovnik. In the 13-th century king Ivan Asen granted many privileges to them and addressed them as beloved and faithful guests of the kingdom. It was one of the few traditions that the Turkish invaders adopted: many Turkish documents mention the Dubrovnik colony in the area; those people paved the way to the Catholic presence and had their own houses of prayer. The lovely Catholic church of St Paul built in 1892 to the design of the architect Valentino who is to be credited for the Catholic church in Varna as well was their successor. For the first time organ music was played in Bulgaria there; the instrument with 700 pipes was made in Germany. The church interior is impressive for the stained glass made in Budapest, the crystal chandeliers and the abundance of icons.

     The valley of the river Rusenski Lom abounds in remarkable rock monasteries; over 300 premises of which 40 were used as rock churches have survived. There is plenty of evidence that they must have been at least twice that number. The ravages of time, ignorance and religious intolerance have abolished most of them. Yet what remains is enough to admit and it will be admitted that the rock cloister and the frescoes in it are unique. That is why they have been evaluated as an important stage in the development of European culture and recorded on the UNESCO List of World Cultural Heritage. The Ivanovo Monastery has seven churches; the oldest part is on the right bank, around the Buried Church; the premises are large, here and there 5 x 5 metres and their walls have been nicely tailored. The Laura, the core of the big monastery compound, was there. To the east are the cells around the Lord's Ravine; the Church is in a best state of preservation. The vault is not flat; it is semicylindrical, like that of the Bessarbovski Monastery. The Ivanovo churches contain some of the best frescoes of Bulgarian religious art. They are down-to-earth, vigorous and artistic, lending a human approach to the dogmas, employing means of expression that relate them to the new aesthetic and moral values of the coming European humanism. For the first time in its more recent history Ruse is mentioned in the 1502 peace treaty between the Turks and Hungarians. From the second half of the 16-th century onwards it started developing as an economic, military and strategic centre of primary importance. In 1580 Pavel Jorjic described Ruse at length; in 1640 the Franciscan friar Peter Baksic from the Bulgarian town of Chiprovtsi who was to become a Catholic bishop wrote that there were 3000 Orthodox houses, 200 Turkish houses and 200 houses of other nations. Again at that time Hadji Kalfa counted 6000 houses, a fort, a customs house and nine mosques.

     Travellers like Carsten Nibur in 1767 and Nicholas Kleeman in 1768 mentioned the lovely view of the city and its commercial importance. Evliya Chelebi wrote thus: "There are 2200 one- and two-storey houses in the city. Real palaces amidst gardens are usually on the bank of the Danube. There are three Christian neighbourhoods, a primary school, three inns, a bath and 300 shops." Ruse was mentioned in the travel notes of the great friend of children, Hans Christian Andersen. The Ruse fort which was encircled by a moat that was 8 metres deep and 15 to 25 metres wide aroused everybody's admiration; the walls rose 10 metres over the river; there were five gates to come in and go out, each with a bridge and a cart waiting for each destination; the invincible Levent Tabia was the most significant of the fortifications on the hills around.

     Under Mithad Pasha, one of the most illustrious names in Turkish national history, Ruse was in its heyday. In 1858 he visited Paris, London, Brussels and Vienna to see for himself the political, economic and cultural state of the European countries. Six years later he became the governor of the Tuna Vilayet, the Danube province and the largest province of the empire, comprising all North and West Bulgaria, with Toulcha, Varna, Ruse, Tarnovo, Vidin, Nish and Sofia. The period of the reform-minded man saw the construction of 3000 km of roads and 1140 bridges of which was the famous bridge of Kolyo Ficheto in Byala, a real miracle of construction, 300 metres long and 10 metres wide, on the major road of the province; the self-taught genius decorated the piers that were sharpened on the side facing the current with purely Bulgarian heraldic motifs: elves, double-headed eagles, lions and swans. 

     Communities were organized; measures were taken to promote trade and industries; land cultivation in the Obraztsov Chiflik estate became mechanized; new sweet-smelling vine grape varieties from Asia Minor were introduced. The strong resistance that his innovations met made him particularly inventive. To build straight and broad streets he caused several fires the worst of which was on July 29, 1868. The receipts from the fees for the fair in Turgovishte were used to establish a shipping company; the income from the maize grown on the common land was used to open a bank.

      Mithad Pasha built two big European-style hotels: Royal Rose and House of Reform. Beside islahhane, the building that later was to be the Russian military club, the mayor's office and a pupils' boarding house, the home of Kaliopa Kalish who was rumoured to be the pasha's mistress has survived. Today it is the urban lifestyle museum which displays a rich collection of furniture, services and fashion in a lovely interior of a house that was lavishly decorated by the artist Karl Steinberger in 1883. And as the 150 lanterns that had been brought from Vienna were fewer than what was required in the pasha's opinion, he added a red lantern, the first brothel in the empire.

     Mithad proclaimed Bulgarian as a co-official language and recognized that the law should make no discrimination between the Turks and non-Turks. Subtle as this assimilatory policy was and not entirely efficient because of oriental fanaticism and laziness, as a matter of fact it sought to denationalize the Bulgarian population who made up one twentieth of the Turkish empire but accounted for one third of Turkey's economic potential; the rest was generated in the 16 other districts that were far less developed.

     In the long run the attempt was abortive and the rebellious Bulgarians in fact interrupted Mithad's Ruse career. Recalled after the energetic interference of the Russian ambassador count Ignatieff he had to say adieu to the city and returned only for a little while to organize the destruction of the heroic detachment of Hadji Dimiter and Stefan Karadzha. Afterwards his path was tortuous: he was the governor of Crete, Damascus and Smyrna, he was a grand vizier, he was an emigre, he was sentenced and pardoned and then in 1884 the sultan Abdul Hamid ordered that he was strangled and the severed head was shown to him to make sure that this time the agile actor failed to outplay him.

     When the sultan Abdul Mejid visited Roustchouk each of the subjects could approach him with a petition. The Bulgarians did and so did the Turks. The sultan was angry: "Couldn't you think of something else but fountains? Is the Danube too little for you? Look at the Bulgarians; they want Bulgarian bishops and Bulgarian schools!"

The first Bulgarian monastery school was opened in 1820, the first secular school was opened in 1842.

It took two years to build the schoolhouse and the Ruse-born A. Hadjiroussev donated the first Bulgarian geographic map that he had published in Strasbourg. In 1850 there were ten schools in Ruse where 900 schoolboys and schoolgirls were taught by 11 school masters and six school mistresses.

   The Bulgarian community was established in 1865; the Zora reading club was opened in 1866; the first Bulgarian printing press with a modern Keiser machine and 10,000 kilograms of Bulgarian and Turkish types was opened in 1866 again. The city became one of the busiest Revival centres of book printing; till 1870 alone 86 Bulgarian books were printed. The Lyra singing society was founded at about the same time; the choir was singing in Trinity Church which was the oldest and the largest in the city and which was built in 1632 and rebuilt in 1764. Outside it looked low and dug into the ground, to meet the Turkish canon but inside it was astonishing for the magnificent altar and excellent acoustic. The belfry was built in a later period for the Turks in Ruse did not allow to ring the bells to call the congregation so there were special people who struck the street pavement with iron-studded crooks. 1871 will be remembered for the first Ruse orchestra; the first performance of the play "Lost Stanka" was again in that year.

     That same year saw a far more remarkable event: Angel Kunchev set up a secret revolutionary committee. The Tryavna-born man had enviable education by the then standards: first he graduated from the artillery school in Belgrade and then from the famous agricultural school in the Czech city of Tabor. He might have had a brilliant career as the manager of Obraztsov Chiflik. However, he chose a different life: be became the leader of organized revolutionary activity and on his way to Romania he was betrayed and committed suicide rather than surrender to the enemy alive at the port of Ruse. He was an honest, devoted and brave man, just like the Apostle of Freedom Vasil Levski who had signed his powers.

     The tomb of 453 activists from Ruse who were involved in the national liberation struggles is in the Pantheon of the Revivalists, a cube with a gilted roof in the city centre. The monument is not to the liking of everyone but everyone pays homage to their lifework. Among all Granny Tonka Obretenova, the first woman who was a member of the organization, is the most striking personality. Intelligent and firm she dedicated all her nearest and dearest to the Liberation of Bulgaria:

two of her sons perished in the struggle; her other two sons were sentenced to be convicts for life yet she never shed a tear and was always determined to put up the men, to give them food and cure and to guard them. It was she who unearthed the head of Stefan Karadzha who died on the gallows and saved it for the generations to come as a relic. Granny Tonka treated Zahari Stoyanov as a son before he became a son-in-law. That man's lifework was memorable for Bulgaria: he was a chairman of the National Assembly and an initiator and organizer of the Reunification in 1885. However he is mostly remembered as the author of the immortal "Notes on the Bulgarian Uprisings". Today two museums which are next door have brought these two together forever and familiarize in detail with the life and time of these eminent Bulgarians.

     The Russian troops seized Ruse on February 8, 1878. The Turkish mayor had already fled taking with him the keys to the city and the banner. The treasurer Ahmed Hamdi tried to find someone to whom he could surrender the power and evidently he became a member of the municipal council afterwards. Everyone was waiting for the happy event but some were making preparations. Vasil Souradev, for example, overstocked his warehouse with thousands of hats and when the slaves gave vent to their jubilation first by throwing down the fezes, he simply had a good business.

     The 1880 general census showed that with a population of 26,163 Ruse was the largest city of the Principality. The earliest city plan of the Russian military engineers Ozhio and Kopitkin was from the first days of freedom; it was redeveloped in 1895 by engineer Dovish and for almost two decades Edouard Winter was the city architect. The first telephone conversations were heard in 1895 when the old Sofia exchange was installed. Special tiles were brought from Bucharest for the curbstone; the main streets were paved with stones that were bought from France. The first car appeared in 1911; in the next 15 years the number increased to 14; the first electric bulbs were switched on in 1916; the buses arrived in 1925. Ruse was the most industrialized centre of Bulgaria with seven of the 20 factories. The raw materials were usually imported and sometimes they went to the extreme: for instance, the hat factories which were the largest in the country used even imported straw. Big investments were made in the food industry where a sugar refinery whose capital was 10 million Belgian francs whose fleet of barges and tug boats was larger than that of the state was the key enterprise. The refinery had its own quay and rope line and provided employment to 1700 workers. However it was they who dominated; more than 20 per cent of the active population were in trade.

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