“Military Cemetery-1916” memorial, Shumentsi village, is the largest military cemetery from the wars of national unification on the territory of the country.
In 1913, Southern Dobrudja ended up within the borders of royal Romania. In two years, with the help of French and Belgian military specialists, an impressive fortress with 15 forts, earthen fortifications and wolf pits was built. It was defended by a garrison of 39,000 men with 150 cannons and dozens of machine gun emplacements. It was considered impregnable, and the commanding General Aslan called it “My little Verdun”. But on September 5 and 6, 1916, with a rapid attack, the Bulgarian army, under the command of General Kiselov, captured it in only 33 hours. They died in the battle for Tutrakan over 10,000 people, Bulgarians, Romanians and Germans, 28,000 Romanian soldiers were captured.
The memorial was created immediately after the battle, victors and vanquished were buried in mass graves and individual graves. In 1922, an obelisk monument was built, on which the following words can still be read, written in Bulgarian, Romanian, German and Turkish: “Honor and glory to those who knew how to die heroically for their fatherland. ” Every year on the first Sunday of September, a National Memorial Assembly is organized in memory of those who died for Tutrakan and Dobruja.
In 2018, the Ministry of Culture announced the “Military Cemetery – 1916” Memorial near the village of Shumentsi as a historical immovable cultural asset of national importance.
