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Back to Forgotten Heroes The Heroes of Grivitza
Romanian troops storming the Grivitsa redoubt during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878
During the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878, Grivitsa was the location of an important Ottoman position featuring several redoubts and acting as part of the defensive fortifications of Pleven. The Battle of Grivitsa was part of the prolonged Siege of Plevna which resulted in the death of many Russian and particularly Romanian soldiers: the losses of the Romanian units in this battle were the largest for the entire war.
Created by Henryk Dembitzky (1830-1906), a Polish artist who took refuge in Romania, in 1881. This is a colour lithograph.
Permission: This image is in the public domain.
Grivitsa is just outside the city of Pleven, Bulgaria.
Photo: http://www.maplandia.com/bulgaria/pleven/pleven/
This is a very rare photograph from the period of the Russian - Turkish war of 1877-1878, of a ship flying the Turkish flag.
The ship was the Lutfi Djebl Gunboat, sunk in 1877 in the Măcin Channel, one of the main alternate channels of the Danube as it travels north just before turning east to empty into the Black Sea. At the time it was the main navigation channel for ships travelling on the Danube. See the maps below.
It was of the Monitor class, a small warship with shallow draft for coastal operations, and had both sail and steam propulsion.
The Turks attributed the sinking to an accident, according to the 'Leeds Mercury' British Newspaper of May 15, 1877. The ship was part of the Danube Squadron under the command of Ferik Mehmet Arif Pasha.
The photograph was bought by Dr Adrian Gheorghe to be donated, together with the Perpetuum Mobile Foundation from Bulgaria, to the Military Museum in Pleven, Bulgaria, to remind everyone of the Romanian heroes of that time.
Alexis and Perpetuum have made, together, many donations to this Museum, in order to promote cross border good relations, and to provide real images of our heroes at Grivitza.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 22nd December 2011
Resource: Bernd Langensiepen, Ahmet Güleryüz, The Ottoman Steam Navy, 1828-1923, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland, 1995
Map of the lower Danube from 1867.
The ship was sunk in the Măcin (previously called the Matschin) Channel, one of the main alternate channels of the Danube as it travels north just before turning east to empty into the Black Sea via the channels of the Danube Delta.
The Măcin Channel re-enters the main channel of the Danube at Brăila, now a city of more than 200 000 people, after passing by the town of Măcin, labelled as Matschin on this map.
At the time, the Măcin Channel was the main channel of the Danube, as can be seen on the 1898 map below. Since then, the Danube has had several re-alignments along its length to shorten distances and improve navigation by ships. The Măcin Channel is now only a side channel, used mainly by fishermen, and as may be seen from Google Earth, large ships occur only in the wider, shorter channel to its west, which has been dredged to accommodate large freight ships.
Map: Heinrich Kiepert (1818–1899)
Permission: Public Domain
Map of southern Romania, Bulgaria and Eastern Rumelia, the latter being the name of an area created by the Treaty of Berlin, 1878.
In 1396 the Bulgars were invaded by the Ottoman Empire, which made Bulgaria a Turkish province until 1878.
In 1878, Russia forced Turkey to give Bulgaria its independence after the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878). But the European powers, fearing Russia's and Bulgaria's dominance in the Balkans, intervened at the 1878 Congress of Berlin, limiting Bulgaria's territory and fashioning it into a small principality ruled by Alexander of Battenburg, the nephew of the Russian Czar.
Eastern Rumelia was an administratively autonomous province in the Ottoman Empire and Principality of Bulgaria from 1878 to 1908. It was under full Bulgarian control from 1885 on, when it willingly united with the tributary Principality of Bulgaria after a bloodless revolution. Ethnic Bulgarians composed the absolute demographic majority within Eastern Rumelia. Its capital was Plovdiv, known for most of its 6 000 year history as Philippoupolis, or Philippopoli on this French map.
Bulgaria has had a complex history since then, but in 2005, it became a member of the European Union.
If the reader clicks on the map to see the larger version, Plevna (Pleven) is just above the 'UL' of 'BULGARIE', and Grivitsa is just outside Pleven.
Map: From the map of 'The Danube States in 1898'.
Scan: Olahus.
Permission: Public Domain
Text: Partly adapted from http://www.bulgaria-travel-guide.com/Bulgariahistory.html and Wikipedia.
Grivitsa 1877 Monuments
Adrian was again in the area of the Grivitsa monuments, in Pleven, Bulgaria, where there a complex of monuments to honour the 1877 War of Independence against the Turks.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 8th July 2013
He found a few improvements to the monuments, repaired and cleaned better than they were, but still some things are missing, such as the bronze statues and bronze plaques, part of those monuments since 1877.
Adrian has donated to the Military Museum of Pleven a lot of 1877 military maps, movies about the War of Independence, books and medals, yet not one of them is on display in the Museum as yet.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 8th July 2013
It seems that, for Bulgarians, some things are more important than to support a European project for the historical complex of Grivitsa, even though this war, won by Russians and Romanians as well as Bulgarians, their history can be seen from another point of view.
Also, speaking about Romanians, it is also their duty to do something for their monuments, and for the Romanian Orthodox Church to not allow the ruins of their churches to become distant memories.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 8th July 2013
Grivitsa Celebrations
On the 11th of September, 2011, were celebrated 134 years since the Battle of Grivitza, Bulgaria, where, during the Russian-Turkish ware, in 1877, on the 30th August on the old calendar, the Romanian army won a huge victory against the Turkish Army.
There are celebrations there each year, and people get dressed up in the military uniforms of the time, and sometimes re-enact the battles.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 11th September 2011
As part of the event, The Alexis Project, together with the Perpetuum Mobile Foundation from Pleven, Bulgaria, made celebrations. The Alexis Project was represented by Adrian Gheorghe and his son Alexandru, and the Bulgarian Team by Miss Gabriela Antonova. The Alexis Project made a donation of important books to the Military Museam at Pleven.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 11th September 2011
The Alexis Project also laid a wreath at the Memorial to this Battle, in the Heroes Chapel of Grivitza. They lit candles and laid flowers at the Memorial.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 11th September 2011
It is wonderful the way that the Bulgarian people are so grateful to the Romanian people for helping them win their liberty for ever, after the 1877 Russian-Turkish war.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 11th September 2011
Donation to the National Military Museum in Pleven, Bulgaria
Today the Alexis Project Association from Romania, and the Perpetuum Mobile Foundation from Bulgaria made an important donation for the National Military Museum in Pleven, Bulgaria. This donation consisted of a high quality replica 1877 Romanian flag, as well as books and maps of the 1877 - 1878 War of Independence, to improve the value of the Museum at Grivitza.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 12th November 2011
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