Kozloduy Island

Kozloduy Island (Bulgarian: остров Козлодуй, ostrov Kozloduy) is the second largest Bulgarian Danubian island (after Belene Island). Located opposite the town of Kozloduy, it is 7.5 km in length and between 0.5 and 1.6 km in width, with an area of 6.1 km².

The island raises 3-4 metre above the river and the flora consists of river poplar trees. Birds known to nest on the island include wild geese and wild ducks.

As the distance from the bank is 200 m, the island is only accessible by boat.

References

Coordinates: 43°47′34″N 23°43′48″E / 43.7927777778°N 23.73°E / 43.7927777778; 23.73

Kozloduy

Kozloduy (Bulgarian: Козлодуй) is a town of 13 771 inhabitants in northwest Bulgaria, located in Vratsa Province, on the river Danube. The city was liberated from Ottoman rule on 23 November 1877 by the Romanian Army under the command of the Imperial Russian Army. Kozloduy is best known for the Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant, Bulgaria's only (as of January 2011) nuclear power plant, which is situated nearby, as well as the second largest Bulgarian Danubian island, Kozloduy Island. The city is also famous for the "Radetski" ship, the boat in which the poet/revolutionary Hristo Botev and with 200 others crossed the Danube River in a final attempt to gather an army and liberate Bulgaria from the Ottoman Empire.

History

The earliest official data shows that Kozloduy was populated in the 16th century. It is in the burial mounds where traces of a Thracian dwelling center that existed in the first millennium B.C. remain. Later on the big Roman roadway along the Danube passed through these places. The remains of the Roman castella (i.e. castles) Magura piatra (or Regianum), Camistrum and Augusta testify to this. In this region there are three historic trenches which were later called Lomski, Ostrovski and Kozloduiski where a military garrison of Khan Asparukh was placed.