Assuming that you’re already in Sofia and want to make a one-day tour to some place that would offer to you some strong taste of Bulgaria – seeing the second largest town in the country – Plovdiv is a must.
A town situated on seven hills, as Rome itself, and maybe older than this famous city . It’s uninterrupted journey through the ages, starts far back in the Thracian times under the name of the Thracian king Evmolpias.
Fiercely attempting to subdue the freedom loving and highly skilled warriors, as the Thracians were, the father of Alexander the Great– Phillip II comes here in the 3-d century B.C. takes the town of Evmolpias- for some time.
But what lasted eternally was the name of Alexander’s father, which he gave to the town in the form of Phillipopolis (meaning the town of Phillip). The name survived till now day through Thracian translation as Pulpudeva and later Slavic pronunciation as Plovdiv.
Not only the name of the town, but every step of the territory of the present day central part bears the evidences of its continuous existence
during at least 25 centuries. Here the restored remains of the Roman theatre coexist with the fairy-tail residential houses of 17-19-th century of the Old town(some built upon the remains of the Roman fortress walls) and medieval churches.