Vidin is a town on the Danube, 199 km north-west of Sofia. Situated on a low bank, supported by dikes and other constructions. A river port, terminal station along the railway line Sofia-Vidin, border check-point and a ferryboat station to Calafat, Romania. Vidin is one of the oldest towns along the Bulgarian Danube bank. It appears as Roman castle Bononia on the foundations of a Thracian town. During the First Bulgarian Kingdom it is known as Budin (Bdin). Bishop's centre. During the Second Bulgarian Kingdom it is a strong fortress and after 1371 - capital of the Vidinsko Tsarstvo under Tsar Ivan Stratsimir. Conquered by Ottoman invaders in 1396 which puts an end to Bulgarian independence. It becomes a trade, port, educational and literary center. During the second half of 14 c. the literary school of Vidin is created; it is here that one Tetraevangelia was copied (nowadays exhibited in the British Museum, London) and the Collection of Bdin (1360, nowadays to be the found in the library of Ghent, Belgium). Vidin is the centre of the Uprising of Konstantin and Fruzhin (1404) against Ottoman rule, seat of independent ruler Osman Nuri Pasha (the end of 18 c.). To this day the following sites have been preserved: Baba Vida fortress, built in 9-10 c. on the ruins of a Roman fortress (rebuilt many times, its present appearance dating back to 18 c.), the Turkish konak (the second half of 18 c.), the mosque and library of Osman Nuri Pasha, the cruciform barracks of 1798, old Renaissance buildings, a synagogue. A historical museum, a theatre, an art gallery. With a population of 65,000 today Vidin is an important transport junction with a railway station, a coach station, an airport for civil services, a port. The Vidin-Calafat ferry link that started in 1973 handles most of the goods and passenger traffic from and via the country to Western Europe. Vidin is proud of its museums, the art gallery which was opened on May 15, 1962 and which, among other artists, displays pictures by Jules Pascin, the philharmonic which is the successor of the first Vidin orchestra organized in 1910 and the festival of cantata and oratorio music.