Note: Lovech is a busy industrial town located on the Osǔm River in northern Bulgaria. Settled in prehistoric times, it was a town in the Roman Empire. The Ottomans made it a thriving center of commerce. In the 19th century, as the Ottoman hold weakened in the area, it was a major center of resistance, and is noted as the place where the Bulgarian hero Vasil Levski was hung by the Turks. A house museum there celebrates his life and revolutionary activities. Today Lovech produced a wide range of manufactured goods, including leather goods, motor vehicles, and agricultural machinery. The 2003 estimated population was 170,000.