The district of Ruse is located in northeast Bulgaria, on the northborder and the biggest Europea transport hub – the Danube river. The district of Ruse is one of the average sized territories with an average population (277,456.8 km2 and a population of 267,063 people). Administratively, the district includes eight municipalities, dominated by Ruse. The administrative center is the city of Ruse with a population of 167,000 people.
The natural resources in the municipality of Rousse are relatively diverse, and in combination with the small territory in which they are located, this is their main advantage in Bulgaria. In this part you can see the natural resources in the municipality of Ruse, together with the municipalities of Ivanovo and Borovo, with which they form a popular tourist route.
Rousse is also the largest Bulgarian port on the Danube river. The transportation geography is favorable because of the intersection of 2 European transport corridors (No 7 and No 9 – the Danube River), which provide the connection between Europe and Asia (Baltic and North Sea / Mediterranean and Black Sea). The connection between the Danube and the Black Sea on Bulgarian soil (Ruse-Varna) is also made possible through Rousse. This is one of the only two bridges across the Bulgarian-Romanian Danube border – the Danube Bridge. The area is also relatively close to the Hemus Highway.
The distance from the city of Rousse to other major cities in Bulgaria is as follows: Sofia – 324 km, Plovdiv – 300 km, Varna – 200 km, Burgas – 294 km, Pleven – 148 km, Veliko Tarnovo – 110 km, Gabrovo – 150 km , Tryavna – 140 km, Troyan – 190 km, Teteven – 200 km, and the Romanian capital Bucharest is only 72 km away.
Climate
When it comes to the climate, the tourist region belongs to the Middle climatic region of the Danube plain from the temperate continental sub-region of the European-continental climate region. The characteristics of the climate elements are complex, which is related to the presence of water-land temperature contrast.
Rousse is an old Bulgarian port town on the Danube river. From time immemorial, people have settled down to the river, which gives them their livelihood – this is how a mound settlement was created in prehistoric times in the area. The found clay idols, fosterers of life, are now preserved in the Regional Museum of History in Ruse. The houses in the settlement mound were arranged in lines, creating streets. It is necessary to speak of a protocol on the territory of the Ruse settlement mound – five millennia BC.
At the beginning of the 1st century AD, the Romans established a military camp here, where the navy along the Lower Danube gathers during winter times. At the mouth of the river Rusenski Lom are anchored ships “pristis”, which gives the city its name — Sexaginta Prista, meaning Port of the sixty ships. According to others, the name “sixty ships” meant the number of ships with which a legion of soldiers could be carried. Recent archeological studies have shown that there was a Thracian settlement long before the arrival of the Romans on the high coast at the mouth of the river Rusenski Lom. It existed three centuries before the New Era and traded in the eastern Balkans – amphorae from Rhodes Island were found.
From the sixteenth century onwards, the town on the right bank of the Danube River (present-day Ruse) is known by its Ottoman name Ruschuk. The harbor and the good conditions for wintering ships support the development of the city during the late Middle Ages, and the Ottoman Danube fleet is located in Ruse. However, the star of Ruse arose when, after the Crimean War of the mid-nineteenth century, the principalities of Wallachia and Moldova merged into a new country – Romania, with the capital Bucharest, located only 70 km away north of Ruse. By this time Austrian steamers had already made easy access to the culture of Central Europe, so Europe penetrated the Bulgarian lands precisely through Ruse – along the Danube and through Bucharest. For this reason, many first things for Bulgaria happened during the liberation – the first railroad and railway station are being built. A modern printing house opened, the first newspaper began publishing.
As one of the main cities in the Ottoman Empire, Ruse has been gathering leading figures of the Bulgarian Revival, who have been in contact here with the rebels in Wallachia. The mythical Baba Tonka embodies the motherland whose children died for the revolution. After the Liberation, Ruse was the largest city in the Principality of Bulgaria, its economy was developing successfully, which reflected on the European appearance of its architecture. The development of the industry is the reason for the rich cultural life. In 1897 in Ruse a cinema was screened for the first time in Bulgaria. The Bulgarian Navy was formed in Rousse – commercial and military, which later became naval. After the foundation of the first private bank, the first private insurance company “Bulgaria” was formed.
