Kozloduy
Encyclopedia
Kozloduy is a town of 13,871 inhabitants in northwest Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...

, located in Vratsa Province
Vratsa Province
Vratsa Province , former name Vratsa okrug) is a Bulgarian province located in the northwestern part of the country, between Danube river in the north and Stara Planina mountain in the south. It is named after its main town - Vratsa...

, on the river Danube
Danube
The Danube is a river in the Central Europe and the Europe's second longest river after the Volga. It is classified as an international waterway....

. The city was liberated from Ottoman
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...

 rule on 23 November 1877 by the Romanian Army under the command of the Imperial Russian Army
Imperial Russian Army
The Imperial Russian Army was the land armed force of the Russian Empire, active from around 1721 to the Russian Revolution of 1917. In the early 1850s, the Russian army consisted of around 938,731 regular soldiers and 245,850 irregulars . Until the time of military reform of Dmitry Milyutin in...

. Kozloduy is best known for the Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant
Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant
The Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant is a nuclear power plant in Bulgaria situated north of Sofia and east of Kozloduy, a town on the Danube river, near the border with Romania. It is the country's only nuclear power plant and the largest in the region...

, Bulgaria's only (as of January 2011) nuclear power plant
Nuclear power plant
A nuclear power plant is a thermal power station in which the heat source is one or more nuclear reactors. As in a conventional thermal power station the heat is used to generate steam which drives a steam turbine connected to a generator which produces electricity.Nuclear power plants are usually...

, which is situated nearby, as well as the second largest Bulgarian Danubian island, Kozloduy Island
Kozloduy Island
Kozloduy Island is the second largest Bulgarian Danubian island . Located opposite the town of Kozloduy, it is 7.5 km in length and between 0.5 and 1.6 km in width, with an area of 6.1 km²....

. The city is also famous for the "Radetski" ship, the boat in which the poet/revolutionary Hristo Botev
Hristo Botev
Hristo Botev , born Hristo Botyov Petkov , was a Bulgarian poet and national revolutionary. Botev is widely considered by Bulgarians to be a symbolic historical figure and national hero.-Early years:...

 and with 200 others crossed the Danube River in a final attempt to gather an army and liberate Bulgaria from the Ottoman Empire.

History

The earliest official data shows that Kozloduy was populated in the 1500s. It is in the burial mounds where traces of a Thracian dwelling center that existed in the first millennium B.C. remain. Later on the big Roman roadway along the Danube
Danube
The Danube is a river in the Central Europe and the Europe's second longest river after the Volga. It is classified as an international waterway....

 passed through these places. The remains of the Roman
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....

 castella (i.e. castles) Magura piatra (or Regianum), Camistrum and Augusta testify to this.
In this region there are three historic trenches which were later called Lomski, Ostrovski and Kozloduiski where a military garrison of Khan Asparukh was placed.

In the 18th century the settlement was marked as Kotozluk and Kozludere ("a low coomb") and later Kozloduy ("an angle of ice blocks").

On 17 May 1876 Hristo Botev
Hristo Botev
Hristo Botev , born Hristo Botyov Petkov , was a Bulgarian poet and national revolutionary. Botev is widely considered by Bulgarians to be a symbolic historical figure and national hero.-Early years:...

's detachment landed at Kozloduy on the Radetski steamer.
On 23 November 1877 the 8th cavalry regiment under Commander Alexandru Perets liberated Kozloduy from the Ottomans. This cavalry was part of the Romanian Forces under the command of the Russian Imperial Army.
Construction of Kozloduy actually started with the construction of the first Nuclear Electric Power Station, which was started on 6 April 1970.

Location

The town is situated on the Danube river, which is the European Transport Corridor No.7. It is 80 km from the province center Vratsa and 200 km from the capital Sofia. The Municipality consists of 5 populated centers. The town and 4 villages- Butan, Harlets, Glojene and Kriva Bara.

Economics and business

The municipality is one of the richest in Vratsa province (after Vratsa Municipality) and has a standard of living
Standard of living
Standard of living is generally measured by standards such as real income per person and poverty rate. Other measures such as access and quality of health care, income growth inequality and educational standards are also used. Examples are access to certain goods , or measures of health such as...

 above the average for Bulgaria. However, as in the rest of the country, it suffers from high unemployment. The town is one of the best places in Bulgaria for entrepreneurship and starting business, as many qualified personnel from other parts of Bulgaria come to Kozloduy due to the Nuclear Power Plant. Kozloduy has also strategic location near transport corridors N.7, N.5, N.8 and N.9. There are two big companies, one in the building sector and one in the electronic sector.

Population

The population is more than 25,000 people, though this is decreasing steadily, as is a tendency throughout Bulgaria. There are almost no other nationalities. It is an international town as well, because often there are a lot of foreigners in Kozloduy attending seminars connected to the nuclear power plant or other activities.

Honors

Kozloduy Cove
Kozloduy Cove
Kozloduy Cove is a 1.4 km wide cove indenting for 1.25 km the east coast of Robert Island, South Shetland Islands between Kitchen Point and Perelik Point. Bulgarian early mapping in 2009. Named after the town of Kozloduy in northwestern Bulgaria....

 in Robert Island, South Shetland Islands
South Shetland Islands
The South Shetland Islands are a group of Antarctic islands, lying about north of the Antarctic Peninsula, with a total area of . By the Antarctic Treaty of 1959, the Islands' sovereignty is neither recognized nor disputed by the signatories and they are free for use by any signatory for...

is named after Kozloduy.
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