Plovdiv Highlights
A walk through one of Europe's oldest continuously inhabited cities, from Roman ruins under the main street to Revival mansions on the Three Hills.
Trip Stops
- 1
Plovdiv's 'Lungs of the City' was laid out in 1892 by Swiss gardener Lucien Chevalas, nicknamed the 'minister of flowers'. Its cast-iron Demeter fountain is the only surviving ornament from Bulgaria's first national exhibition, and the lake fountains dance to music and lights in summer.
📍 Plovdiv, Plovdiv Province, Bulgaria
- 2
This small 350-seat theatre began as the city council chamber of Roman Philippopolis and was later converted for performances. It sits in the corner of the old forum, and the road above it was built straight over the ruins.
📍 Plovdiv, Plovdiv Province, Bulgaria
- 3
Built under Emperor Hadrian and modelled on the stadium at Delphi, it once held up to 30,000 spectators. Only the curved northern end is exposed in Dzhumaya Square, while the rest lies under the main pedestrian street, visible in a few shop basements.
📍 Plovdiv, Plovdiv Province, Bulgaria
- 4
Built in 1363-64 right after the Ottoman conquest, this nine-domed mosque is often called the oldest in Europe outside Moorish Spain. It stands on the site of a former cathedral church, and its interior walls carry painted decoration from the late 18th to early 19th centuries.
📍 Plovdiv, Plovdiv Province, Bulgaria
- 5
One of the world's best-preserved Roman theatres, it was only rediscovered in the early 1970s after a landslide exposed it. It still hosts opera and rock concerts, and King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard played a three-night residency here in 2025.
📍 Plovdiv, Plovdiv Province, Bulgaria
- 6
This Revival-era cathedral stands on Nebet Tepe and holds Bulgaria's first-ever Christmas liturgy in the Bulgarian language, held in the late 1850s. That service became a milestone in the fight for an independent Bulgarian church.
📍 Plovdiv, Plovdiv Province, Bulgaria
- 7
The museum occupies a 1847 Bulgarian Baroque mansion built for the merchant Argir Kuyumdzhioglu, with four floors and over 130 windows. The house is itself the biggest exhibit, with carved wooden ceilings in every room.
📍 Plovdiv, Plovdiv Province, Bulgaria
- 8
This medieval gate was built over the foundations of a 2nd-century Roman gate and was one of three entrances to the ancient acropolis. In the 17th and 18th centuries rich merchants built their houses straight into the old fortress walls around it.
📍 Plovdiv, Plovdiv Province, Bulgaria
- 9
Tradition dates the first church on this spot to 337 AD, making it one of the city's oldest, and the current building went up in 1832. Its icons include work by the Revival master Zahari Zograf.
📍 Plovdiv, Plovdiv Province, Bulgaria
- 10
The oldest settlement in Plovdiv began on this hill around 4000 BC, and its name means 'hill of the guards'. A secret tunnel dating from Justinian's reign once led down toward the Maritsa River.
📍 Plovdiv, Plovdiv Province, Bulgaria
- 11
Kapana means 'the trap', and its tangle of cobbled lanes is named after old crafts like goldsmiths, blacksmiths and furriers. It was revived for Plovdiv's 2019 European Capital of Culture year and is now the city's best area for cafes, bars and street art.
📍 Plovdiv, Plovdiv Province, Bulgaria
- 12
Founded in 1083 by the Georgian-born statesman Gregory Pakourianos, this is Bulgaria's second-largest monastery. Only its frescoed ossuary survives from the original, and the monks still distil a famous jujube brandy.
📍 Bachkovo, Plovdiv Province, Bulgaria
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