Skip to content
Menu
Hidden gem1st – 6th c. ADUnknown

Oescus

Ulpia Oescus, Colonia Ulpia Oescus, Улпия Ескус

city · Pleven Province, Bulgaria

What it is
Oescus was a Roman legionary fortress on the Danube that grew into Colonia Ulpia Oescus, one of the largest cities of the Lower Danube, and its excavated centre lies in open fields beside the village of Gigen, about 50 km north-west of Pleven (en.wikipedia; the Regional Historical Museum Pleven).
What you’ll see
Excavation, begun in 1904, has uncovered the centre of the colony: the forum and the temples, public and private buildings, public baths and shops around it, with parts of the streets and the town walls (the Regional Historical Museum Pleven; en.wikipedia).
Worth the trip?
For readers who want the scale of a Roman frontier city, yes, especially combined with the museum in Pleven, which holds what was found here.
Getting there & cost
Oescus lies on the edge of the village of Gigen, near where the Iskar meets the Danube, about 50 km north-west of Pleven (de.wikipedia; the Regional Historical Museum Pleven).UnknownHours, tickets and parking
A wide view of a grassy excavation with low walls of rough stone, fallen column drums and squared blocks lying in heaps, poppies in the grass and a line of trees behind.
Part of the excavated city, with fallen column drums. · Photo: Anton Lefterov · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
A long carved stone beam lying on the ground, its face decorated with garlands, faces and bulls' heads under a band of moulding, with a wall of squared stones behind.
Part of the architrave of the Temple of Fortuna, carved with garlands, Medusa heads and bulls' heads. · Photo: Carole Raddato from Frankfurt, Germany · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons
A small maroon sign on a post reading "Public basilica, 2nd–3rd cent. AD" in Bulgarian and English, in front of a low wall of large squared stone blocks set on rubble masonry.
A wall of the public basilica, with one of the site's bilingual markers. · Photo: Carole Raddato from Frankfurt, Germany · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons

What is there today

Excavation, begun in 1904, has uncovered the centre of the colony: the forum and the temples, public and private buildings, public baths and shops around it, with parts of the streets and the town walls (the Regional Historical Museum Pleven; en.wikipedia). The forum had four temples, which few Roman cities had: temples of Jupiter, Juno and Minerva on its south side, and on the north a temple of Fortuna, built by the city’s guild of craftsmen (bg.wikipedia). The ruins also include a main gate, a civil basilica, three public baths and a well-preserved stretch of paved road, and parts of the legionary fortress’s wall can still be seen (en.wikipedia). Work in 2020 showed that the great hall, of the 4th century, was faced with 14 kinds of rare coloured marble; its date and richness suggest it may have been built for Constantine’s visit in 328 (en.wikipedia).

What you walk among is foundations, low walls and fallen architecture in the grass: column drums, squared blocks and carved stones such as the architrave of the Temple of Fortuna, with small bilingual markers naming the buildings (the photographs). The best finds are not on site. The 3rd-century mosaic known as “The Achaeans”, found here in 1948, is in the Regional Historical Museum in Pleven, with many of the site’s other finds, and a statue of Fortuna is in the National Archaeological Museum in Sofia (en.wikipedia).

Is it worth the trip?

For readers who want the scale of a Roman frontier city, yes, especially combined with the museum in Pleven, which holds what was found here. It is a long drive into the countryside to a field of low ruins where nothing stands to any height, so a traveller after one impressive monument will find more elsewhere.

Getting there

Oescus lies on the edge of the village of Gigen, near where the Iskar meets the Danube, about 50 km north-west of Pleven (de.wikipedia; the Regional Historical Museum Pleven). No car park or bus stop is mapped within 1.2 km, so plan on a car (OpenStreetMap). We could find no opening hours or fee published by an operator.

Visiting details

Tickets
Unknown

Before you go

  • We could find no operator page with opening hours or a fee for the site (searched 2 October 2026). The Regional Historical Museum in Pleven, which excavates it, publishes hours only for its museum in Pleven.
  • No car park and no bus stop are mapped within 1.2 km; plan on driving to the village of Gigen.

History

Ptolemy describes Oescus as a town of the Triballi, and it took its name from the river Oescus, today the Iskar (en.wikipedia; bg.wikipedia). The legion V Macedonica had a fortress here from the early 1st century AD, and a settlement of veterans grew up beside it (en.wikipedia; de.wikipedia; bg.wikipedia). The legion left for the East in 62 and returned in 71, and a second legion, IV Scythica, was also based here until 101 (en.wikipedia).

The town became a colony, Colonia Ulpia Oescensium, named after Trajan, and was built over the legionary fortress. Published dates for the grant differ: soon after Trajan’s Dacian wars, between 106 and 112, or about 167 (en.wikipedia; bg.wikipedia; de.wikipedia). It stood where the Danube road met the roads south to Serdica and Philippopolis (en.wikipedia; bg.wikipedia). When Aurelian gave up Dacia in 271 the city was enlarged by 10 ha (de.wikipedia; en.wikipedia).

On 5 July 328 Constantine I came in person to open the bridge across the Danube that linked Oescus with Sucidava on the far bank; it was destroyed in 355, after about 27 years, and its ruins can be seen only from the northern, Romanian bank. A bishop of Oescus is recorded in 343 (en.wikipedia; de.wikipedia). The Huns took the city in the 5th century, Justinian I probably rebuilt its walls, and it came to an end with the Avar invasions of 585–586 (en.wikipedia; de.wikipedia). A Bulgarian village stood on the ruins from the 10th to the 14th century (en.wikipedia; de.wikipedia).

Nearby

  • A plank walkway leading to a gap between two stretches of stone wall, with two information boards standing in front of the wall under a blue sky.

    Photo: MSClaudiu · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Commons

    6 km · fort · Olt County

    Sucidava

    On the upper terrace of the Danube stand the defensive walls of the late Roman town (4th–6th centuries) with eight fully exposed towers; the Roman baths, a palaeochristian basilica of the 5th–6th centuries and paved streets have also been found (ro.wikipedia).

  • Restored walls of grey rubble stone enclose a paved rectangular space reached by a short flight of steps, with an information board in front, column shafts standing to the right and woods behind.

    Photo: Todor Bozhinov / Тодор Божинов · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Commons

    39 km · fort · Pleven Province

    Storgosia

    Excavation has uncovered the fortress wall with its gates and towers, houses, a public granary and an early Christian basilica (the museum; bg.wikipedia).

Straight-line distances.

Sources

Every fact on this page comes from the records below, each used under the licence noted.

SourceLicence
Pleiades 216907CC BY
Wikidata Q1110806CC0
OpenStreetMap way/27808205ODbL
Wikipedia (en) — OescusCC BY-SA 4.0
Wikipedia (bg) — ЕскусCC BY-SA 4.0
Wikipedia (de) — Colonia Ulpia OescusCC BY-SA 4.0
Regional Historical Museum Pleven — archaeological siteslicence not recorded
Pleiades — Roman baths at Oescuslicence not recorded