Ruse, located on the Dunabe river, is the fifth largest city in Bulgaria and is often called little Vienna. Ruse is known for its beautiful Neo-Renaissance, Neo-Baroque, and Neo-Rococo architecture, but also has some beautiful Art Nouveau and Neo-Classical buildings. Ruse is the birthplace of the Nobel prize winner in Literature Elias Canetti and the writer Michael Arlen.

The Romans had the settlement of Sexaginta Prista on the site of the current city. Before their arrival, Thracian tribes lived there. The city was successively in Byzantine, Bulgarian, and Turkish hands until Russian troops liberated the city from the Turks on February 8, 1878.