Gigen (, ) is a village in northern

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

, part of Gulyantsi Municipality, Pleven Province. It is located near the Danube River, opposite the

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

n town of Corabia. , Gigen has a population of 1,641 inhabitants. Gigen Peak on

Graham Land Graham Land is the portion of the Antarctic Peninsula that lies north of a line joining Cape Jeremy and Cape Agassiz. This description of Graham Land is consistent with the 1964 agreement between the British Antarctic Place-names Committee ...

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean (also known as the Antarctic Ocean), it contains the geographic South Pole. ...

is named after the village.

Geography

The village is situated in the central division of the Danubian Plain in the fertile Chernopolska lowland at an altitude of 88 m. It lies just across the right bank of the river

Iskar Iskar may refer to: ;Bulgaria * Iskar (river), a river in western Bulgaria * Iskar Reservoir, situated on the Iskar River * Iskar (town), a town in the Iskar Municipality of the Pleven Province * Iskar Municipality * Iskar, Sofia, one of 24 munici ...

, some three kilometers from its confluence with the Danube. It falls within the temperate continental climatic zone. The soils are alluvial and chernozem. Administratively, Gigen is part of Gulyantsi Municipality, situated in the northwestern part of Pleven Province. Its territory is 65.605 km². The closest settlements are the villages of Baykal to the west,

to the southwest, Brest to the southeast, and Zagrazhden to the northeast. Gigen is situated on the second class II-11 road Lom– Kozloduy– Gulyantsi.

History

Gigen is most famous for being built on the site of the important Roman colony of Oescus. The extensive ruins are located in the northwestern part of the village and were first associated with the ancient colony in the end of the 17th century. A bridge, built or reconstructed by

Constantine I Constantine I (27 February 27222 May 337), also known as Constantine the Great, was a Roman emperor from AD 306 to 337 and the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity. He played a Constantine the Great and Christianity, pivotal ro ...

and named Constantine's Bridge in his honour, linked Oescus with Sucidava (modern Corabia) across the Danube in the 4th century. Gigen is also known for an anti- Bogomil inscription in Old Bulgarian dating to the 10th century, the rule of Tsar Peter I of Bulgaria. The text was discovered in the old village church, inscribed on a stone block 85 centimetres in width. According to the scientifically accepted reading, the text of the inscription is as follows: Gigen was an important fortress of the First and Second Bulgarian Empire. In 1393 it was conquered by the Ottomans during the Bulgarian–Ottoman wars. It was mentioned in Ottoman documents of 1430.

Culture and economy

The Church of St George was constructed 1841. The first school in Gigen was founded in 1835 and moved to a dedicated building in 1872. There were three schools in the 20th century. The local cultural center, known in Bulgarian as a '' chitalishte'', was established in 1907 and is named "Iskra", meaning Sparkle. The ''chitalishte'' has a library, a small art gallery, a museum, and maintains a local amateur folklore group. Gigen lies in a rich agricultural area and has a well-developed agriculture. The main crops include many varieties of cereals, fruits and vegetables, as well as grapes. Livestock breeding is also developed, especially cattle and pigs.

Citations

References

* * {{cite book , ref={{harvid, Geographic Dictionary of Bulgaria, 1980 , title = Географски речник на България , trans-title = Geographic Dictionary of Bulgaria , last1 = Мичев (Michev) , first1 = Николай (Nikolay) , last2 = Михайлов (Mihaylov) , first2 = Цветко (Tsvetko) , last3 = Вапцаров (Vaptsarov) , first3 = Иван (Ivan) , last4 = Кираджиев (Kiradzhiev) , first4 = Светлин (Svetlin) , chapter = , year = 1980 , language = Bulgarian , publisher = Наука и култура (Nauka i kultura) , location = София (Sofia) , isbn = Villages in Pleven Province Old Bulgarian inscriptions