The siege of Calafat took place in 1854 during the

Crimean War The Crimean War was fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the Ottoman Empire, the Second French Empire, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the Kingdom of Sardinia (1720–1861), Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont fro ...

. The Russians unsuccessfully besieged the Ottoman army at this place for four months before finally withdrawing. In July 1853, the Russian army invaded the Principality of

Wallachia Wallachia or Walachia (; ; : , : ) is a historical and geographical region of modern-day Romania. It is situated north of the Lower Danube and south of the Southern Carpathians. Wallachia was traditionally divided into two sections, Munteni ...

, which was an Ottoman vassal. Their army had some 91,000 men under the command of Prince Gorchakoff, with some 240 field artillery and 90 siege guns. In response, war was declared by the Ottomans and they assembled an army of some 60–70,000 under the command of Omar Pasha. The Ottomans had several fortified fortresses on the southern side of the

Danube The Danube ( ; see also #Names and etymology, other names) is the List of rivers of Europe#Longest rivers, second-longest river in Europe, after the Volga in Russia. It flows through Central and Southeastern Europe, from the Black Forest sou ...

river, of which

Vidin Vidin (, ) is a port city on the southern bank of the Danube in north-western Bulgaria. It is close to the borders with Romania and Serbia, and is also the administrative centre of Vidin Province, as well as of the Metropolitan of Vidin (since ...

was one. The Turks made several plans to advance into Wallachia. On 28 October their army in Vidin crossed the Danube and established itself at the village of Calafat, and started building fortifications. Another army crossed the Danube at Ruse on 1-2 November in a feint attack to lure the Russians away from Calafat. This operation was unsuccessful and they retreated on 12 November, but in the meantime Calafat's defenses and the communication with Vidin had been improved. In response to these events, the Russians marched towards

Calafat Calafat () is a city in Dolj County, southern Romania, in the region of Oltenia. It lies on the river Danube, opposite the Bulgarian city of Vidin, to which it is linked by the Calafat-Vidin Bridge, opened in 2013. After the destruction of the b ...

and unsuccessfully engaged the Turks at the end of December. They then entrenched themselves at Cetate, where they were attacked by the Turks. The Turks were led by Ahmed Pasha, the Russians by General Joseph Carl von Anrep. There were several days of fighting until 10 January, whereupon the Russians retreated towards Radovan. After January the Russians brought troops to the surroundings of Calafat and started the unsuccessful siege, which lasted 4 months; they withdrew on 21 April. During the siege the Russians suffered heavy losses from epidemics and attacks from the fortified Ottoman positions.

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Conflicts in 1854 1854 in the Ottoman Empire {{Siege-stub