Nikopol
Nikopol, town, northern Bulgaria. It lies along the Danube River near its confluence with the OsĆm (OssÄm) and opposite Turnu MÄgurele, Rom.
Nikopol was an important Danubian strongholdâruined fortresses still dominate the townâfounded by the Byzantine emperor Heraclius I in ad 629. In 1396 the Ottoman sultan Bayezid I defeated a Crusader army led by King Sigismund of Hungary at Nikopol, an event that contributed significantly to Turkish domination of the Balkans for five centuries. Occupied by the Turks in 1393â1877, Nikopol was again fortified and became an important administrative town. Its population grew to approximately 40,000 before it was destroyed by the Russians in 1810; thereupon the Turks moved the regional centre of government northwest to Vidin, and Nikopol consequently declined. The Russians liberated Nikopol from Turkish control in 1877. Farming, viticulture, and fishing are the main means of livelihood; as a port, it has been superseded by Somovit. Pop. (2001) 13,656.