Plovdiv

Plovdiv is the second largest city in Bulgaria, centre of the Thrace Tourist Region and the European Capital of Culture 2019. Standing proudly by the 7 hills and situated at the crossroads between the West and the East, Plovdiv is a place where history and modern age go hand in hand.

Apparently, it is the oldest continuously inhabited city in Europe and one of the oldest cities in the world - Plovdiv is contemporary of ancient Troy and Mycenae, and it was founded before Rome, Athens and Constantinople.

Important sites are:

- the Roman Stadium at the heart of the city (when the city was called Philippopolis)

- the Ancient Theatre - one of the best preserved in the World

- Roman mosaics in the Small Basilica

- the Old Town of Plovdiv with its splendid Bulgarian Revival-style wooden-frame houses dating back to 18th and 19^th and preserving historical layers of prehistoric, Thracian, Roman.

- the Dzhumaya Mosque

- the Ethnographic Museum

- The "Kapana" district. This is the area to the creative industries. Our guide told us that most of the beautiful houses one can see there now have been renovated when Plovdiv was assigned the Capital of Culture. Before that this neighborhood was the old Ottoman quarter and it was hectic and confusing, resembling a labyrinth or a ‘trap’, hence the name Kapana. Here you can also find some beautiful street art, which was commissioned by the Municipality on occasion of the 2019 European City of Culture.