Jump to content
Clare
Clare

Day 3: Plovdiv

We had a leisurely start to the day in Plovdiv this morning, before setting out to explore the town.  Plovdiv is Bulgaria's second city and is European Capital of Culture for 2019. The city is situated on the Maritsa river and the apartment we are staying in is just to the north of the river, whereas the main town centre is on the south, so our first task was to locate a bridge.

plovdiv-02.jpg

The guidebook says that Plovdiv is built on six hills and it felt like we had to walk up several of them to get to the old town once we'd crossed the river. xD

plovdiv-22.jpg

It was worth it, though; the old town is home to some really unusual buildings, built in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in a style known as "national revival" architecture. Bulgaria was still ruled by the Ottomans at this time, but there was a growing national consciousness and a middle class who could afford to build some impressive houses.

plovdiv-04.jpg

This bright blue one, known as the Hindliyan House, was built in 1835 by a merchant who had made his money trading in India.

plovdiv-09.jpg

Lots of the houses were really colourful, with beautiful decorations on the front.

plovdiv-12.jpg

Some of them are now museums, but many others are still lived in by people today.

plovdiv-24.jpg

As we were walking around, I was a bit confused that several buildings seemed to be displaying what, on first glance, looked like an Argentinian flag. It turns out this is actually the flag of Plovdiv xD

plovdiv-16.jpg

As we got towards the centre of the old town, we caught sight of one of Plovdiv's main churches, the church of St Constantine and Elena, with its pretty bell tower.

plovdiv-18.jpg

Around the corner from here was the Hisar Kapia, a medieval gate into the old town, built in the 11th century.

plovdiv-21.jpg

From here we followed a cobbled street uphill. It was so narrow that the houses almost touched in the middle.

plovdiv-25.jpg

This took us to a place called Nebet Tepe, which is one of the hills where ancient Plovdiv was founded. We could see out across the modern part of town where we are staying...

plovdiv-30.jpg

...but the views out towards the old town and the mountains beyond were more scenic :) 

plovdiv-27.jpg

We could just make out the minaret of one of Plovdiv's Ottoman mosques.

plovdiv-29.jpg

Plovdiv isn't just famous for it's more modern architecture; there are also Roman remains here.

plovdiv-13.jpg

The city is home to one of the world's best preserved Roman theatres and that's where we were heading next.

plovdiv-38.jpg

It cost 5 lev (£2.33) each to buy a ticket to enter the theatre, which seemed like good value. When we walked through the entrance, this was the view that greeted us.

plovdiv-37.jpg

The theatre is enormous and can apparently seat over 5,000 people.

plovdiv-46.jpg

It was built in the 1st century AD and lay buried for hundreds of years before finally being rediscovered following a landslide in the 1970s.

plovdiv-53.jpg

Today it is used for concerts and plays, so there was a bit of sound and lighting equipment lying around.

plovdiv-51.jpg

Tim climbed all the way down to the bottom but I stayed at the top, enjoying the views :) It really was an incredible location and definitely worth seeing.

plovdiv-44.jpg

After the theatre, we made our way back down through the old town, towards the more modern city centre.

plovdiv-57.jpg

On the way we passed the Church of the Assumption, which in the mid-nineteenth century was at the centre of the struggle for an independent Bulgarian Orthodox church, when the bishop of Plovdiv began to hold church services in Bulgarian.

plovdiv-58.jpg

The inscription on the tower reads "In memory of the liberators" in gratitude to the Russian soldiers who liberated Plovdiv from the Ottomans in 1878.

plovdiv-60.jpg

Following the treaty of San Stefano later in 1878, Plovdiv became the capital of a newly independent Bulgaria. But the treaty didn't last long and after the Congress of Berlin, the region of Eastern Rumelia was separated from the rest of Bulgaria. Plovdiv became the capital of Eastern Rumelia instead until the region was reunified with Bulgaria in 1885. By that time, however, Sofia was firmly established as the Bulgarian capital and Plovdiv has been the second city ever since.

plovdiv-62.jpg

Once we were down in the town centre, we found the mosque which we had seen while up on the hill.

plovdiv-63.jpg

This is the Dzhumaya Mosque, which was built in the 14th century and is believed to be one of the oldest European mosques.

plovdiv-67.jpg

It's located just in front of the remains of Plovdiv's Roman stadium, built in the second century AD.

plovdiv-68.jpg

It was free to climb down into the stadium and have a look around :) 

plovdiv-75.jpg

From here we walked along Plovdiv's main shopping street. 

plovdiv-84.jpg

Even though this was the more modern part of town, there were still some really pretty buildings, decorated in pastel colours.

plovdiv-87.jpg

We found a nice restaurant to get some food; pizza for me and chicken with broccoli(!) for Tim. We finished up with tiramisu for me and cheesecake for Tim. Again it was really cheap - less than £20.

plovdiv-92.jpg

After lunch we had another stroll around.

plovdiv-93.jpg

We found the Roman Odeon, where it looked like renovation and excavation work was still ongoing.

plovdiv-91.jpg

We also walked to Plovdiv's main park, the park of Tsar Simeon.

plovdiv-94.jpg

Hopefully this is the closest we'll get to a bear during our trip xD

plovdiv-95.jpg

The park is home to something called "The Lake of the Singing Fountains". It looked like a swimming pool with fountains in it xD But apparently there is a light display with classical music at weekends.

plovdiv-96.jpg

By this stage we were pretty hot, so we decided to start making our way back through the town towards our apartment to cool off and blog.

plovdiv-97.jpg

Plovdiv is a really beautiful city and we've had a lovely day here :) 

plovdiv-85.jpg

Edited by Clare




User Feedback

Recommended Comments

There are no comments to display.



Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Add a comment...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.


×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.