Pleven Perspectives

March 27, 2026

Pleven, Bulgaria

Karen and Nancy standing in front of a sign with the name of the town, Pleven, in both Cyrillic (left) and English (right).

Fun Facts About Pleven

• The name "Pleven" is derived from an old word meaning "barn" or "granary," but it also translates to "well-wooded place," reflecting its rich, fertile, and green surroundings.

• Evidence of human life in the region dates back to the end of the 5th millennium BC, making it thousands of years old.

• The Svetlin Rusev Donative Exhibition houses works from world-famous artists including Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dalí, and Auguste Renoir, and it's free to enter.

• Fun Fact Additional Information: Today we learned the probable origin of the Fun Fact we shared in a previous blog about nodding your head meaning "No". This habit seems to have begun when Bulgaria was under a repressive regime, and it allowed citizens to look like they are agreeing with government representatives, but other citizens would know they really didn't agree.

Pleven is in an agricultural area of Bulgaria. The town is not on the Danube so our ship stopped at a nearby port and we took a bus to the town of Pleven. As we were touring the town of Pleven, the ship moved downstream to a different port, Svistov, Bulgaria.

Main pedestrian boulevard in Pleven

Pleven is best known for its Panorama monument. The monument was built 50 years ago as a tribute to remember a major battle fought in the area. The works of art depict the events of Russo-Turkish War and the five-month Siege of Pleven. The 360º panorama was completed in just eleven months in 1977 for the 100th anniversary to Pleven's liberation from Ottoman rule.

The Panorama building from the outside.

The inside of the Panorama includes paintings of famous battles, a 360º painting on the inside wall showing the conditions and progression of the war, with matching real physical trenches and artifacts displayed to lead into, and merge with, the painting.

A Painting on display on the first floor.

Above and below are sections of the panorama. Please note the actual dirt and trench in front of the picture. In addition there were relevant background noises playing.

A panorama shot of half of the panorama!!

One institution that draws people to Pleven is its Medical school, one of six in Bulgaria that offers English Language medical programs. These medical schools cost 7-10,000 Euros per year, and their degrees are accepted by all countries in the European Union.

Medical School Hospital

Pictures from Pleven: (Gambling is legal in Bulgaria.)

Performing Arts Theater and some performances that have been done there. Do you recognize the shows?

The decorations in the trees represent the coming of Spring and doing good deeds. These particular ones were made by a Kindergarten class.

As we walked toward the Eastern Orthodox church, we saw a separate Bell Tower. The reason it was separate is that Bell Towers were not allowed in Bulgaria, even on churches, under Ottoman rule. The government leaders under Ottoman rule did not want the sounds from the bells to compete with the leaders. After Bulgaria was liberated from the Ottomans in 1878, bell towers were again built in the cities.

One of the interesting things we noted when went inside the church were all the holes in the walls and ceiling. Those were made on purpose, and had small pieces of clay placed inside. Evidently this improved the acoustics inside the church.

As we were waiting for our bus back to the ship, Tom went over to talk to some campaign workers for a parliamentary candidate in Bulgaria. The young campaign workers spoke good English and were happy to talk to us about their candidate and the things that are going wrong in their country! We hope they are successful in getting their candidate elected.

The Dog of Pleven:

As we leave Bulgaria heading to Romania and our last few days on this cruise, we are reflective about the resilience of people, the importance of respect for other cultures, and the ultimate need to see the commonality of humanity...."we are more alike, my friends, than we are unalike (Maya Angelou)."

The next few days may be hectic, so we are not sure when our next blog will post....but, you'll know when you get our email. Thank you again for your comments and for reading our blog. Best to all and take care wherever you are in the world!