LOCATION AND CLIMATE: The town of Pleven is located in the heart of the Danubian plain, past the Vit River. It is situated at important crossroads and benefits from excellent road and rail links. Pleven is 174km north-east from Sofia, 35 km north from Lovech, 146 km south-west from Rousse and 135 km from the former Bulgarian capital Veliko Tarnovo. The climate in Pleven is continental, with four differentiated seasons: spring, summer, autumn and winter (although due to global heating the weather conditions tend to change and the border between the seasons become more and more vague). The annual temperatures fall within the range of -15?C to +35?C.

PLEVEN NOWADAYS: Today Pleven is the 7th biggest town in Bulgaria. The town is a regional administrative centre and has a population of about 130 000 people. Pleven is a modern city, boasting cultural, leisure and sporting facilities and offering a wide variety of things to do and places to go - pubs and cafes, galleries and cinemas, opera and theathers, etc? International festivals such as of opera singers and puppet theatres, take place in Pleven, as well as many national and local festivals, competitions and feasts.

In 1982 the Water Cascade in Pleven was built - a fairy of fountains, water mirrors, waterfalls and sprays - majestic, especially at night with different coloured lights.

Not to miss of course, the fact that Pleven is an important centre with high concentration of worthwhile urban sights. Being a town-pantheon, Pleven hosts many monuments that commemorate its rich history and heroic past - the Kailaka fortress; the Skobelev Park Museum, built up in the south-west part of the town, on a low hill; the Pleven Epopee Panoramic Exhibition; the Mausoleum in honour of the fallen Russian and Romanian soldiers; The common grave Bratskata Mogila (which preserves the bones of thousands Russian soldiers), etc.

LANDMARKS: About 200 monuments remind to the generations about the most sanguinary battles, which took place here. Almost all landmarks there are related to the Russian-Turkish War of Liberation and to the siege of Pleven-probably the most decisive episode of the War of Liberation from Ottoman rule. In the centre of the town are located the Mausoleum-Charnel House dedicated to the Russian and Romanian soldiers killed during the war and The Museum of the Liberation of Pleven.

One of the biggest panoramas in the world is constructed in Pleven. The Pleven Epopee 1877 Panorama depicts the five-months battles during the Russian-Turkish war 1877-78 as a result of which Bulgaria was liberated from the 500 years of Ottoman yoke. Through its original combination of artistic paintings, sculpture, authentic articles and explanatory texts, it provides for a sufficiently clear idea of the development of the events, especially those related to the third assault of the town.
The illusion effect (perspective up to 12km) is impressive and takes the visitors back in time, carries them into another reality. The spectator finds himself in the middle of the battlefield ? attacking Russian regiments, smoke from shells, doctors and nurses, counter-attacking Turkish cavalry, fires burning in the town, the Russian General Skobelev leading the attack against the Turkish fortifications ?
It was painted by a team of 11 Russian and 2 Bulgarian artists.