Nikopol

Nikopol's fortress rises above the southern bank of the Danube, guarding a passage between Bulgaria and the lands across the river. After Tarnovo fell to the Ottomans in 1393, Tsar Ivan Shishman ruled the remnants of his realm from here. The fortress itself fell in 1395, and Nikopol became an Ottoman military and administrative center, giving its name to a sanjak on the empire's northern frontier.

In 1396 a crusading army led by King Sigismund of Hungary besieged the Ottoman-held town. Sultan Bayezid I marched north to relieve it, and on 25 September defeated the crusaders in a battle near Nikopol. The victory secured the Ottoman position along this stretch of the Danube. The town prospered under Ottoman rule, but its importance later waned during the 17th and 18th centuries.