AROUND THE SLOPES OF THE BALKAN MOUNTAINS IN THE VIDIN PROVINCE OF BULGARIA, THE BELOGRADCHIK FORTRESS, ALSO KNOWN AS KALETO, IS AN ANCIENT FORTRESS AND ROMAN STRONGHOLD.
In order to safeguard the transportation of goods and gold from Thracian territories, the Romans built a fortification at Belogradchik around the third century AD. This ancient fortification, which was used to keep watch over the surrounding area during the Byzantine period, was built on the highest, most inaccessible point of the rocks today known as the citadel.
However, the Slavic invasions of the Balkan Peninsula resulted in the fortress’s collapse, leaving Belogradchik an abandoned ruin until a period of restoration in the 7th century AD and the Middle Ages. Emperor Justinian I added more structures to Belogradchik during the 6th century AD.
In the fourteenth century, Ivan Stratsimir, the Bulgarian tsar of Vidin, expanded the existing castle, elevating Belogradchik to second place in significance behind Baba Vida, the monarch’s main citadel. The Ottomans marched to Vidin in the aftermath of the catastrophic Battle of Nicopolis in 1396, arrested Ivan Sratsimir, imprisoned the tsar in Bursa, and strangled him to death.
The castle was briefly governed by the Hungarian King Ludovic I before Belogradchik was taken over by the Turks and brought into the Ottoman Empire in 1396. The hajduk and insurrectionist activity in the area contributed in part to the subsequent reconstruction periods, which were necessary to maintain Ottoman power.
The fortress was crucial in helping the Ottoman Empire put down the 1850 Bulgarian Belogradchik Uprising. Bulgarian peasants rebelled and marched on Belogradchik but were unable to capture the castle because they were opposed to the feudal oppression, which, as conducted by the Ottoman authority, included a blatant robbery covered up as tributes imposed by Turkish feudal lords.
The siege of Belogradchik during the Serbo-Bulgarian War in 1885 and the Russo-Turkish War in 1878 was the last time the city was used in hostilities.