siege, notable, medieval

Siege of Dorostolon

Name: Siege of Dorostolon
Location: Silistra, Bulgaria

Siege of Dorostolon was a siege conducted in AD 971 at Silistra, in what is now Bulgaria. It was part of the Sviatoslav's invasion of Bulgaria, which ran from AD 967 to AD 971. The recorded result: Byzantine victory.

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FoughtAD 971

WhereSilistra, Bulgaria44.119N, 27.260E

OutcomeByzantine victory

BelligerentsByzantine EmpireagainstKievan Rus'; Bulgarian Empire

Part ofSviatoslav's invasion of BulgariaAD 967 to AD 971

Record

Date	AD 971 (year precision) to 24 July AD 971
Place	Silistra, Bulgaria 44.119N, 27.260E
Kind	Siege, medieval
Strength	28,000–30,000
Commanders	John I Tzimiskes	Svyatoslav I of Kiev

The recorded site, with the nearest other engagements in the atlas. Present-day coastlines, rivers and borders; towns from Natural Earth.

Nearest engagements

Siege of Silistra (1854) 1854, same recorded site
Siege of Silistra (1828) 1828, same recorded site
Siege of Silistra (1829) 1829, same recorded site
Battle of Silistra AD 968, 0.6 km SE
Battle of Oltenița 1853, 50 km W

Contested ground: this site was fought over 5 times between AD 968 and 1854.

In the same war

Before: Battle of Silistra AD 968

Elsewhere in AD 971

Siege of Dorostolon is one of 167 engagements of the 10th century in the atlas and one of 118 in present-day Bulgaria.

Sources

Identity, coordinates, dates and the war from Wikidata Q737655, released under CC0. Result, belligerents, commanders, strength and casualties from the infobox of the English Wikipedia article Siege of Dorostolon, revision 1373354929, read 2026-11-14, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; the article's text is not reproduced here. Present-day country and state from Natural Earth. Dates before 1582 follow the Julian calendar as recorded.