Plovdiv - cultural crossroads and picturesque nature
Bulgaria, situated in the south-eastern part of Europe, and in the eastern part of the Balkan Peninsula, had been a land of many ancient civilizations and great peoples, all anxious to leave marks of their turbulent history: bronze and iron spears and arrows, stone buildings remains, messages to future generations carved on rocks and stone columns or written on parchment or leather. For centuries, the roads passing through the territory of our country have been connecting Europe to Asia and Africa. Four common European transport corridors, connecting Western and Northern Europe with the Eastern and Southern part of the continent, cross their roads right here.
Plovdiv is the second largest city in Bulgaria, situated on the Maritsa River. Its unique location on these ancient crossroads has stimulated strong cultural and political influences from East and West civilizations, and yet maintained its unique cultural identity. Being older than towns like Rome, Athens, Carthage or Constantinople, an almost contemporary of Troy, Plovdiv is a town built upon layers of towns and a culture developed upon layers of cultures.
Plovdiv is a picturesque town, with many parks and gardens, museums and archaeological monuments. Its old part, called the Old Town, with houses from the National Revival period (18-19th century), is an imposing open-air museum situated on the three hills of the ancient Trimontium. One of the most remarkable sights of the town, the Ancient Theatre (a well-preserved Roman theatre), is located there and is still used for open-air performances.


Places to see
Remains from the ancient times, Middle Ages, Bulgarian national revival and contemporary culture – all this can be seen in Plovdiv. The city preserves very rare cultural monuments like: The Rome stadium, an ancient Philipopol theatre, an impressive coloured mosaics, the Ancient forum and the fortress walls, etc. On the top of Trihalmieto hill is situated a picturesque neighbourhood with beautiful examples from the Bulgarian national revival’s architecture. Stariat grad (The Old city) was awarded UNESCO’s gold medal for preserving, restoration and conservation of its cultural monuments.

The millennial history of Plovdiv begins at the northern end of Trihalmieto hill. In the ‘Nebet Tepe’ archaeological complex remains from a prehistoric village live together with ruins of Roman and Hellenic fortresses used to protect the city until it was conquered by the Turks.

The fortress walls
The main remains from the Romans and Byzantium are two fortress walls with its gates. A walk on the hill of Trihalmieto gives impression for the ancient fortification system. Hissar kapia without a doubt is the best preserved fortress gate. It was built by the time of the emperors Trayan and Mark Aurelius. The remains of the second fortress wall of Trimoncium show that it was 8 meters (25 feet) tall and 2.3 meters (8 feet) width, made of huge stones and with few tall towers around. A secret entrance to the fortress connecting the acropolis with Maritza River’s bank by a tunnel and a staircase concaved in Nebet Tepe’s rocks was found.

The Ancient forum
The block of houses, founded when ‘Trimontzium’ Hotel was built, spreads on 0.6 hectares. The streets are covered with huge syenite slabs. An interesting fact is that houses were built right from the curbstones of the streets. This part of the forum that is open for public shows the different levels in building the Thracian Agora as well as the well preserved Roman marble remains.

The Roman stadium
A fantastic Roman stadium is placed under the today’s commercial center of the city. It’s rostrums were built on the slopes of Sahat tepe and Taxim tepe. The stadium is in a form of a horseshoe with 180 meters longitude and 30 000 seats capacity which indicates about the size of the city in this period. There are evidences that the games played here date back to the time of Emperor Septimus Severus (193-211). The most splendid competitions were the so called Pitiani and Alexandria’s games, following the model of the Greek’s Olympic Games. The games were held every 4 years and lasted for a few days.

The Ancient theatre
Discovered by chance when the south fortress wall was restored, the Ancient theatre is the most impressive building from the Roman times. The seats are amphitheatrically positioned and are separated in two rings of 14 rows each. The theatre was with 7000 seats capacity. The names of the city’s quarters were engraved on the benches in each sector and every visitor had to take place in particular sector. The two-level scene is a sign of the architectural and decorative richness of this building. The high-quality materials and the artistic performance unequivocally show the enormous social importance given to the theatre.

The Roman mosaics
By their performance these mosaics can be compared only to the ones in the famous basilica in the city of Sandanski. The Roman town-planning was adding big importance to the wastewater and sewerage system of the city. From the springs in Rhodopes Mountain the water was led away to a huge reservoir by clay pipes. The remains of this aqueduct show that its inclination was orientated directly against Taxim tepe. When parts of that same aqueduct were discovered in the city’s center in 1983, the water inside was drinkable.