Travel Guide to Plovdiv, Bulgaria

Plovdiv is the second-largest city in Bulgaria after Sofia. This city is situated on the bank of Martisa River. Before becoming an important city it was originally a Thracian settlement.

It was founded by the Thracians in the 7th century B.C. They were very skilful wine-makers. In the Middle Ages, it was the city of strategic regional importance. By the 5th century B.C. the material was used for the pavement of most streets in Plovdiv and the drainage system was formed. Very famous is Philippopolis. This settlement can be found among the rocks of Nebet Tepe in Old Town Plovdiv.

A lot of beautiful houses were constructed there and many of them can still be seen in the Architectural reserve Old Plovdiv. And now there are more than 150 different monuments which were created during the period called The Bulgarian National Revival. Many houses were reconstructed into museums, galleries, workshops, restaurants and pubs.

The Old Town of Plovdiv is a historic preservation site known for its Bulgarian Baroque architectural style, for example: the most distinguished representative of the Baroque of Plovdiv - the house of Koiumjioglu (also now an ethnographical museum), the house of Georgiadi (now the Rennaissance museum of the national struggle), the house of Nedkovich (the municipality), the house of Chomaka (the gallery of Zlatyo Boyajiev - famous Bulgarian painter), the house of Balabanov (a gallery of modern painting and also it is a concert hall), the house of Lamartin (the house of writers) where Alfonse de Lamartin, a well-known French poet, spent some time while the diplomatic mission in Turkey.

The streets of the city are really narrow and wonderful. Wandering the streets, pathways and by-ways of the Old Town one can admire beautiful house-museums there with facades which are colored in pleasant-sounding combinations.