SISTOVA (Bulg. Svishtov)  , the capital of the department of Sistova, Bulgaria, on the right bank of the Danube, 40 M . W . 25 of Rustchuk . Pop . (1906), 13,408 . Despite the lack of railway communication, and the migration of the Turkish inhabitants after the Russo-Turkish War (1877-1878), Sistova is an important commercial centre, exporting wine and grain and importing petroleum . Sistova is identified with the Roman colony Novae mentioned by Ptolemy . The exact site appears to have been Staklen, to the west of the present town, which has gradually moved east-ward since the 16th century, when it was almost destroyed in the Turkish wars . It was at Sistova that the peace of 1790 was signed, by which the Austrian-Turkish boundary was determined . The town was burned in 1810 by the Russians; but after 18zo it began to revive, and the introduction of steam traffic on the lower Danube (1835) restored its prosperity . The Walachian town of Alexandria was founded by fugitives from Sistova in 1878 .