Silistra

Silistra is a town in northeastern Bulgaria on the southern bank of the lower Danube, at the point where the river stops forming the border with Romania. It is the administrative center of Silistra Province and one of the important towns of the historical region of Dobruja. The city proper covers about 27 square kilometres, and in January 2012 it had 35,230 inhabitants within its limits. It is a cultural, industrial, transportation and educational center of the northeast, with landmarks that include a richly decorated Late Roman tomb, the remains of a medieval fortress, an Ottoman fort and an art gallery. In antiquity the Romans built a fort here on the site of an earlier Thracian settlement and called it Durostorum, which became an important military centre of the province of Moesia and a seat of a Christian bishopric. In medieval times it was known as Drastar.