VIDIN (formerly written WIDIN or WIDDIN), a fortified river-port and capital of a department in the extreme N.E. of Bulgaria; on the right bank of the Danube, near the Yugoslav frontier. Pop. (1934) 18,599, including about 3,00o Turks and 1,500 Spanish Jews—descendants of refugees who fled hither from the Inquisition in the 16th century. Vidin is an episcopal see and the headquarters of a brigade. A steam ferry connects it with Calafat, on the Rumanian bank of the Danube, and there is a branch railway to the main line Sofia-Lom. The old town, containing several mosques and synagogues and a bazaar, pre serves its oriental appearance. There is a modern cathedral, a school of viticulture and a high school, besides an ancient clock tower and the palace (Konak) formerly occupied by the Turkish pashas. Vidin exports cereals and fruit, and is locally celebrated
for its gold and silver filigree. It has important fisheries and manufactories of spirits, beer and tobacco.
Vidin stands on the site of the Roman town of Bononia in Moesia Superior. It is a fortress of great natural strength owing to the marshes which surround it. In the 14th century it was the seat of an independent tsardom, which was overthrown by the Turks in 1396. Under the Turks it was the seat of a pashalik, which under Pasvanoglu (1794-1807) was practically independent.