Belene

Infobox Settlement
official_name=Belene
native_name=Белене
settlement_type=Town
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subdivision_type = Country
subdivision_name = BUL

subdivision_type1= Province (Oblast)
subdivision_name1=Pleven
population_total=9826
population_as_of=15 December 2004
unit_pref=imperial
elevation_m=27
timezone=Eastern European Time|utc_offset=+2|timezone_DST=Eastern European Summer Time|utc_offset_DST=+3
postal_code_type=Postal code
postal_code=5930
area_code=0658
latd=43|latm=39|lats=|latNS=N|longd=25|longm=7|longs=|longEW=E
leader_title=Mayor|leader_name=Petar Dulev
website = http://obshtina.belene.net/

Belene ( _bg. Белене) is a town in northern Bulgaria. It is located in Pleven Province and is close to Svishtov. Belene is situated on the right bank of the Danube.

Belene was proclaimed a town in 1964, which is celebrated every year in the first week of September with a market and cultural events. It is best known for the prison on Belene Island and as the proposed site of Bulgaria's second nuclear power plant, which has been under construction 7 km east of the town until it was interrupted in 1990 due to the severe economic crisis that followed the fall of communism in the country. There are plans to start construction again as a replacement for reactors 3 and 4 at Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant, which Bulgaria has shut down as a condition for EU membership. The total capacity of the two reactors will be 2,000 MW.

The main confessions in the town are Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy, with two Roman Catholic and one Orthodox church being present. The Catholic Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary was built in 1860, the Eastern Orthodox Church of St George in 1874 and the Catholic Church of Saint Anthony of Padua was constructed in 1893.

Belene was the focal point for the short film The Mosquito Problem and other stories [http://www.themosquitoproblem.com/] The film features many of the town's colourful characters, highlighting their daily plight of a nuclear plant of empty promises and a year round mosquito epidemic.

ister cities

* Belleville-sur-Loire, France
* Hajdúsámson, Hungary
* Vigonza, Italy