RUSTCHUK (RusCuk), a city of Bulgaria, Turkey in Europe, on the south bank of the Danube, opposite Giurgevo, at the point where the river receives the waters of the Lorn, a fine stream from the northern slopes of the Balkans. Since 1867 it has been connected by rail (139 miles) with Varna. The town was nearly destroyed by the Russian bombardment from Giurgevo in 1877, and the military works have since been dismantled in terms of the treaty of Berlin. Its position on the river frontier of Turkey long made it a place of strategic importance. In 1871 the population was about 23,000 (10,800 Turks, 7700 Bulgarians, 1000 Jews, 800 Armenians, 500 Gipsies, 800 Wallachians and Serbs, 400 Western Europeans), and in 1881 it was returned as 26,163.

In the time of the Romans Rustchuk was one of the fortified points along the line of the Danube. In the Tabula Peutingemana it appears as Prisca, in the Antonine Itinerary as Serantaprista, in the Notitia as Seragintaprista, and in Ptolemy as Priste Polis. Destroyed by the barbarian invasion, the town recovered its importance only in comparatively modem times. In 1810 it was captured by the Russians, and on his departure next year Kutusoff destroyed tho fortifications. In 1828-29 and again in 1853-54 it played a part in the Russo-Turkish War, and in 1877, as already mentioned, it was nearly destroyed.