Силистра

Silistra is Bulgaria's last Danube city — beyond it the river turns north into Romania — and it has been guarding this bend since Rome stationed the Eleventh Claudian Legion at Durostorum two thousand years ago. The town has the layers to prove it: a late-Roman painted tomb of the fourth century whose frescoed servants and peacocks rank among the finest late-antique painting in the Balkans; the medieval fortress of Drastar, seat of Bulgarian patriarchs and scene of tsarist and Byzantine sieges; an Ottoman fort, Mejidi Tabia, still intact on the southern hill; and along the riverbank, the elegant residue of the nineteenth century, when Silistra was a fortress town of the empire's Danube line.

The city's modern pride is green and feathered: a few kilometres downstream lies Lake Srebarna, the UNESCO-listed biosphere reserve where Dalmatian pelicans nest among the reeds — a bird-watchers' Mecca and one of Europe's great wetlands, with a natural-history museum overlooking the colonies.

Silistra's cultural season centres on its drama and puppet theatre, its historical and art museums — the gallery is among the best endowed on the Danube — and an active chitalishte tradition. Quietly, at the country's far corner, Silistra keeps what river towns keep best: patience, layers and the long view downstream.