Plovdiv

Plovdiv, Bulgaria

A sunset view over the hills and city of Plovdiv from the ancient walls of Nebet Tepe.

A city of seven hills and layered history, where Roman stone, Ottoman mosques and Bulgarian Revival houses sit within a short walk.

The place

Plovdiv is the second-largest city in Bulgaria, on both banks of the Maritsa River in a fertile part of the south of the country, about 144 km (93 miles) south-east of Sofia. It is built across seven syenite hills, some around 250 metres high, which is why locals often call it the City of the Seven Hills. The city sits at about 172 metres above sea level and has a population of roughly 330,000. The wider metropolitan area holds around 540,000 people.

Wikipedia describes Plovdiv as Europe's oldest continually inhabited city, with people living on the site since around 6000 BC. That claim is worth holding lightly, but the layers of settlement are real and you can see them in the stonework. Today Plovdiv is an economic, transport and educational hub. It was the European Capital of Culture in 2019 and joined UNESCO's Global Network of Learning Cities in 2016.

The heart of the visit is the Old Town, compact enough to cover on foot. Cars are kept off the main central street, so you can move between Roman remains, Ottoman-era mosques and houses in the Bulgarian Revival style, many of which now shelter museums, guesthouses and cafés. Climb one of the hills and the roofs spread out below, with the Maritsa winding through the lowlands. The city feels lived in rather than staged. Students, market traders and stray cats share the pavements with visitors.

Its story

The records of this area reach back more than eight thousand years, and the ground under the city holds deep layers of occupation, roughly twelve metres thick in places. The earliest traces of people here date to the 6th millennium BC, when Neolithic communities buried their dead in mounds such as Yasa Tepe, which lie in districts like Philipovo. Archaeologists have also found pottery and everyday tools on Nebet Tepe, the hill at the heart of the early town, from the Chalcolithic period. By the end of the fourth millennium BC a settlement was established there and had been lived in ever since.

Thracian groups followed, and by the first millennium BC the site had grown into a town. It was a fort of the Bessi, a local Thracian tribe, before the wider region fell under Persian control in 516 BC under Darius the Great. Persian authority came and went. Mardonius reasserted it in 492 BC, and the town stayed nominally tied to Persia until 479 BC. Later it passed into the Odrysian kingdom, a union of Thracian tribes that lasted from 460 BC until 46 AD.

The Roman centuries left the city's most visible monuments, including the theatre uncovered in the 1970s during construction work and the mosaics of the Bishop's Basilica. Ottoman rule added mosques and a clock tower, and later merchants' houses in the Bulgarian Revival style came to line the Old Town. The city's layers of building tell a story of many powers, each leaving a new surface on the old one.

What to see

Culture

Plovdiv takes its performing arts seriously. The Drama Theatre traces its roots to the first professional theatre company in Bulgaria, founded in 1881, and the Puppet Theatre, opened in 1948, remains one of the country's leading puppet companies. The opera company dates from 1953. The Philharmonic, founded in 1945, has welcomed soloists including Dmitri Shostakovich and Sviatoslav Richter. Folk music runs deep too. The Trakiya Folklore Ensemble, formed in 1974, has toured widely, and the Detska Kitka children's choir is among the best-known youth choirs in the country.

Daily life mixes Orthodox churches, the Old Town's mosques and the Revival houses that now shelter museums and restaurants. The Old Town is a living neighbourhood, so the streets are lined with flats, courtyards and workshops as well as tourist cafés, and it is worth lingering over a coffee rather than rushing from sight to sight. Locals tend to keep their voices low in churches and during performances.

When you enter a church or mosque, cover your shoulders and knees, and at the mosque follow the example of the people around you on removing your shoes, and ask before photographing anyone at a folk performance or in a workshop.

What to wear

Traditional Bulgarian dress varied from village to village. The costumes of the Plovdiv region were typically built from hand-spun wool and linen, with woven aprons, embroidered sleeves and sashes worked in red and dark thread. Women's dress was often layered, and the most elaborate pieces were kept for weddings and feast days. Today these costumes live mostly on stage with folk ensembles such as the Trakiya company, and in local museums and at festivals, rather than on the street.

In everyday life, people in Plovdiv dress much like people across Europe: jeans, trainers, light jackets and knitwear in cooler months. Evenings out in the Old Town's restaurants are a little smarter, but nobody expects formal wear. Stylish sandals and sneakers are common, and the city's young crowd often wears simple, dark colours.

For a visit, pack flat, grippy shoes, because the Old Town is paved with cobblestones and the streets climb the hills. In hot weather, light cotton and a sun hat help, and carry a scarf or light layer to cover your shoulders in churches and the mosque. Shorts are fine on the streets, but long trousers or a skirt below the knee are the safer choice inside religious buildings.

What to eat

Plan it

Best time. March, April and November are the most comfortable months, with highs of about 27 to 31 °C and less rain than the wetter late spring, which makes the hills easier to climb and the Old Town pleasant to walk. July and August bring highs above 39 °C, and the heat lasts from May to September, so plan the hill walks for early mornings.

How long. 2–3

Getting there. Fly into Plovdiv's airport and take the bus to the central bus station Yug, which runs after every flight. By train, the main railway station is a 10–15 minute walk south of the centre; around 15 trains a day run to and from Sofia, taking roughly two to four hours. By road, the A1 motorway connects Plovdiv with Sofia to the west.

Budget. low

Tips

Etiquette

Nearby

Sources