Novo Selo, Vidin Province
Encyclopedia
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
, part of Vidin Province
Vidin Province
Vidin Province is the northwesternmost province of Bulgaria. It borders Serbia to the west and Romania to the northeast. Its administrative centre is the city of Vidin on the Danube river. The area is divided into 11 municipalities...
. It lies on the right (south) bank of the Danube
Danube
The Danube is a river in the Central Europe and the Europe's second longest river after the Volga. It is classified as an international waterway....
and is the administrative centre of a municipality with the same name.
Novo Selo has a population of 1,217 and the mayor is Antoanetka Staneva. It lies at 44°10′N 22°47′E, 45 m above sea level. The village is located 25 km north-northwest of the provincial centre Vidin
Vidin
Vidin is a port town on the southern bank of the Danube in northwestern Bulgaria. It is close to the borders with Serbia and Romania, and is also the administrative centre of Vidin Province, as well as of the Metropolitan of Vidin...
and 12 km east of the Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
n border at the Timok River
Timok River
The Timok is a river in eastern Serbia and for the last 15 km of its run a border between eastern Serbia and western Bulgaria.It derives the names in all these from the name it had in antiquity, Latin: Timacus....
mouth, with Mehedinţi County
Mehedinti County
Mehedinţi is a county of Romania. It is mostly located in the historical province of Oltenia, with one municipality and three communes located in the Banat...
of Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
directly across the Danube to the north. The main occupation in Novo Selo is vine
Vine
A vine in the narrowest sense is the grapevine , but more generally it can refer to any plant with a growth habit of trailing or scandent, that is to say climbing, stems or runners...
growing.
According to the travel notes of the Italian
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
traveller Count Luigi Ferdinando Marsigli
Luigi Ferdinando Marsigli
Count Luigi Ferdinando Marsigli , was an Italian soldier and naturalist.He was born in Bologna. He was a member of an old patrician family and was educated in accordance with his rank...
, the village was founded around 1700 and was initially named Prosǎnǎc (Просънъц). Due to the plague and a fire the villagers abandoned the village only for their descendants to return in 1772 to found the modern Novo Selo. After the Crimean War
Crimean War
The Crimean War was a conflict fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the French Empire, the British Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Sardinia. The war was part of a long-running contest between the major European powers for influence over territories of the declining...
a local government was set up and a knez (mayor) and councillors were elected.
Following the Liberation of Bulgaria
Liberation of Bulgaria
In Bulgarian historiography, the term Liberation of Bulgaria is used to denote the events of the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78 that led to the re-establishment of Bulgarian state with the Treaty of San Stefano of March 3, 1878, after the complete conquest of the Second Bulgarian Empire, which...
in 1878 Novo Selo became part of Vidin District, and has since 1 January 1979 been the seat of a municipality also including the villages of Florentin, Negovanovtsi
Negovanovtsi
Negovanovtsi is a village located in Novo Selo Municipality, part of Vidin Province, Northwestern Bulgaria. The population of the village is 743.-External links:*...
, Vinarovo and Yasen.
The construction of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church of St Nicholas in the village, a cultural monument, began in 1825. The bells were shipped from Pest
Pest (city)
Pest is the eastern, mostly flat part of Budapest, Hungary, comprising about two thirds of the city's territory. It is divided from Buda, the other part of Budapest, by the Danube River. Among its most notable parts are the Inner City, including the Hungarian Parliament, Heroes' Square and...
, Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...
. The Zemedelets chitalishte
Chitalishte
A chitalishte is a typical Bulgarian public institution and building which fulfils several functions at once, such as a community centre, library and a theatre. It is also used as an educational institution, where people of all ages can enroll in foreign language, dance, music and other courses....
(community centre) was built in 1930; it is also a memorial to all locals who perished in the wars. The Cyril and Methodius School dates to 1939. Another landmark is the characteristic clock tower
Clock tower
A clock tower is a tower specifically built with one or more clock faces. Clock towers can be either freestanding or part of a church or municipal building such as a town hall. Some clock towers are not true clock towers having had their clock faces added to an already existing building...
from 1931, which is a symbol of Novo Selo. Novo Selo also has a small river port, a beach and an orphanage
Orphanage
An orphanage is a residential institution devoted to the care of orphans – children whose parents are deceased or otherwise unable or unwilling to care for them...
.
Novo Selo is also known for its typical vernacular, sharing features with the Serbian dialects
Serbian language
Serbian is a form of Serbo-Croatian, a South Slavic language, spoken by Serbs in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia and neighbouring countries....
to the west and the Torlakian
Torlakian
Torlakian or Torlak is a name given to the group of South Slavic dialects of southeastern Serbia , northeastern Macedonia , western Bulgaria , which is intermediate between Serbian, Bulgarian and Macedonian.Some linguists classify it as an Old-Shtokavian dialect of Serbian or a fourth dialect of...
vernacular to the south, as well as showing lexical influences from Vlach
Vlach language (Serbia)
Vlach / Romanian are the terms used to designate the Romanian varieties spoken by the Vlachs of eastern Serbia.-Status:...
. Novo Selo's motto, in the local vernacular, is Mi smo si mi (Ми смо си ми), "We are (just) ourselves".Here is a video of the Clock Tower http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skIjxtVJJMg&feature=channel_page .