Plovdiv old town
This is one of the oldest European towns contemporary to Òroya and Mikena. It has been existing as a settlement about 8000 years ago, and became a town 3000 years ago during the Troyan war. There are very well preserved artifacts of the Bulgarian Revival architecture – a variety of archeological memorials from Thracian, Romanian and Medieval times.
More ancient than Bulgaria itself, this singular city preserves vivid memories of its turbulent and dramatic fate. In 342 B.C. Philip 11 of Macedon conquered the Thracian town of Evmolpia leaving, it his name - Philippopolis. At the start of our millennium the Romans conquered Thrace and called the city Trimontium.
During the 19 th century Bulgarian master builders erected the National Revival town of Plovdiv (the Old Town) with steep cobbled lanes, lovely houses with large bay windows and slender columns, latticed eaves and heavy oak gates, quiet green yards and rippling marble fountains. Every house here has its own style and atmosphere. Situated on three hills in the Thracian Plain, encircled by the slow running waters of the Maritsa River, Bulgaria’s second largest city today, Plovdiv has a 24 centuries long history and is one of the ancient crossroads between East and West. Landmarks remaining from Roman times include the Philippopolis Amphitheatre and the restored 2 nd century Antigue Theatre. The Ethnographic, the art galleries, churches and the street of folk arts and crafts are major landmarks of Old Plovdid. The Old Plovdiv on Trimontzium hill is famous of its National Revival architecture (from 18 th-19 th centuries).
Many of the houses are now museums:
• the Ethnographic museum
• the Museum of the National Revival and the National Liberation struggles
• the Museum “Balabanov’s house”
• the Hindilian's house
A lot of the churches are very interesting too:
• the Church “St. St. Konstantin and Elena”
• the Cathedral church “The Holy Mother”