The frozen Danube is now just a hard-to-believe memory for residents of ‎Bulgaria's Silistra

published on 3/9/25 7:05 AM

The frozen Danube (1985)

Photo: starasilistra.com

Four decades have passed since the longest freezing of the Danube River waters, which the residents of the Bulgarian towns along the Danube remember. In 1985, the river was covered in ice for two whole months - from January 16 to March 16. Then the ice near the town of Silistra had to be broken with explosions.

The section of the river in the Aydemir region was chosen as a suitable place and thus saved the western part of the city from flooding.

For this "bombardment" in Silistra, a special battery from the artillery division in the city of Shumen arrived. The explosions shattered the windows of the apartment blocks near the Danube Garden, as well as the nearby Natural Sciences and Mathematics High School. The damages were paid by the then Commission for Natural Disasters and Industrial Accidents.‎

Since 1985, it seems like we haven't seen a real winter in Northern Bulgaria, say the people of Silistra. To this day, they remember the years when the ice thickness reached 30 centimeters. Children played, and the older ones skated on modern skates on the icy section. ‎

Memories from the beginning of the 20th century in Silistra (1918-1940) also speak of the frozen Danube. Every time the great European river froze, the local rich people would jump on sledges and set off on the ice to cross to the other side and visit the so-called jurors in the opposite Romanian city of Calarasi. In good weather, they would reach as far as Bucharest.‎