1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Sistova

SISTOVA (Bulg. Svishtov), the capital of the department of Sistova, Bulgaria, on the right bank of the Danube, 40 m. W. of Rustchuk. Pop. (1906), 13,408. Despite the lack of railway communication, and the migration of the Turkish inhabitants after the Russo-Turkish War (1877-1878), Sistova is an important commercial centre, exporting wine and grain and importing petroleum.

Sistova is identified with the Roman colony Novae mentioned by Ptolemy. The exact site appears to have been Staklen, to the west of the present town, which has gradually moved eastward since the 16th century, when it was almost destroyed in the Turkish wars. It was at Sistova that the peace of 1790 was signed, by which the Austrian-Turkish boundary was determined. The town was burned in 1810 by the Russians; but after 1820 it began to revive, and the introduction of steam traffic on the lower Danube (1835) restored its prosperity. The Walachian town of Alexandria was founded by fugitives from Sistova in 1878.