Occupying low hills above the River Danube, SVISHTOV is a long-established port and crafts town that grew just to the west of the former Roman city of Novae A common crossing point for boats, before the building of the bridge at Ruse downstream, Svishtov witnessed the arrival of the Russian liberators in 1877 and the invasion of Romania by German and Bulgarian forces in 1916.

Bus, train and hydrofoil terminals are all in a drab riverside area just below, the bluff upon which Svishtov is built. Roads curl up into the hilltop town, passing a shabby overgrown park in the midst of which lurk remains of the medieval kale, or fortress. Just below the kale, the modern facade of the Church of Sveti Dimitar obscures a ramshackle seventeenth-century nave, brightened by some colourfully naive nineteenth-century frescos.

Beyond lies the main square, where you`ll find most of the amenities Head right along Tsar Osvoboditel and right again into ul. Konstantinov to reach the Church of Sveta Troitsa. Just beyond is the former house of Aleko Konstantinov (daily 9am-noon & l-5pm), a satirist remembered for creating Bay Ganyu, an itinerant peddler of rose oil and rugs who remains one of the most popular characters in Bulgarian fiction. Konstantinov himself was never afraid to enter public controversies, and was gunned down in 1897 by political opponents A jar holding his heart, complete with ragged bullet hole, is the museum`s, most striking exhibit.

By returning to Tsar Osvoboditel and following it further west, you`ll come across a large open-air market, behind which lies the Sveto uchilishte (daily 9am-noon & l-5pm). A rather lumpish stone construction dating from 1815, this was the country`s first secular school, and harbours some restored period classrooms.

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