castle
Asen's Fortress
A medieval fortress ruin with a surviving 13th-century church on a rock spur above the Chepelare river, beside the Asenovgrad–Smolyan road.
21 km · about 25 min drive
Plovdiv, Bulgaria · Europe
Plovdiv is worth a stop: 30 minutes from Sadovo, 40km from Wonderful Bridges.
Plovdiv is a city located in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. With a population of 329,489, it is an important destination in Europe.
On a road trip, Plovdiv sits in Bulgaria, where you drive on the right. It's in the Europe/Sofia time zone. Below you'll find where to stay, things to do nearby, and everything you need to add Plovdiv to your route.
Plovdiv (Bulgarian: Пловдив, pronounced [ˈpɫɔvdif]) is the second-largest city in Bulgaria and the most populous city in the Bulgarian part of the historic region of Thrace, located 144 km (93 miles) southeast of the capital Sofia. It had a population of 329,489 as of 2024 and 540,000 in its greater metropolitan area.Read more
An important economic, transport, cultural, and educational hub of Bulgaria, Plovdiv was the European Capital of Culture in 2019, and joined the UNESCO Global Network of Learning Cities in 2016.
Plovdiv is in a fertile region of south-central Bulgaria on the two banks of the Maritsa River. The city has historically developed on seven syenite hills, some of which are 250 metres (820 feet) high. Because of these hills, Plovdiv is often referred to in Bulgaria as "The City of the Seven Hills". There is evidence of habitation in the area dating back to the 6th millennium BC, when the first Neolithic settlements were established. The city was subsequently a Thracian settlement named Pulpudeva, later being conquered and ruled also by Persians, Ancient Macedonians, Celts, Romans, Byzantines, Goths, Huns, Bulgarians, Thraco-Romans, Bulgars, Slavic tribes, Crusaders, and Ottoman Turks.
Philippopolis (Greek: Φιλιππούπολις) was founded as a polis by the father of Alexander the Great, Philip the Great (r. 359–336 BC), the king of ancient Macedonia, settling there both Thracians and 2,000 Macedonians (Greeks) in 342 BC. Control of the city alternated between the Macedonian kingdom and the Thracian Odrysian kingdom during the Hellenistic period; the Macedonian king Philip V (r. 221–179 BC) reoccupied the city in 183 BC and his successor Perseus (r. 179–168 BC) held the city with the Odrysians until the Roman Republic conquered the Macedonian kingdom in 168 BC. Philippopolis became the capital of the Roman province of Thracia. The city was at the centre of the road network of inland Thrace, and the strategic Via Militaris was crossed by several other roads at the site, leading to the Danube, the Aegean Sea, and the Black Sea. The Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius (r. 161–180 AD) built a new wall around the city.
In Late Antiquity, Philippopolis was an important stronghold, but was sacked in 250 during the Crisis of the Third Century, after the Siege of Philippopolis by the Goths led by Cniva. After this the settlement contracted, though it remained a major city, with the city walls rebuilt and new Christian basilicas and Roman baths constructed in the 4th century. The city was again sacked by the Huns in 441/442, and the walls were again rebuilt. Roman Philippopolis resisted another attack, by the Avars in the 580s, after the walls were renewed yet again by Justinian the Great (r. 527–565).
In the Middle Ages, Philippopolis fell to the Bulgars of the First Bulgarian Empire in 863, during the reign of Boris I (r. 852–889), having been briefly abandoned by the Christian inhabitants in 813 during a dispute with the khan Krum (r. c. 803 – 814). During the Byzantine–Bulgarian wars, the emperor Basil the Bulgar-Slayer (r. 960–1025) used Philippopolis as a major strategic fortification, governed by the protospatharios Nikephoros Xiphias. In the middle 11th century, the city was attacked by the Pechenegs, who occupied it briefly around 1090. The city continued to prosper, with the walls restored in the 12th century, during which the historian and politician Niketas Choniates was its governor and the physician Michael Italikos was its metropolitan bishop.
According to the Latin historian of the Fourth Crusade, Geoffrey of Villehardouin, Philippopolis was the third largest city in the Byzantine Empire, after Constantinople (Istanbul) and Thessalonica (Thessaloniki). It suffered damage from the armies passing through the city during the Crusades as well as from sectarian violence between the Eastern Orthodox and the Armenian Orthodox and Paulician denominations. The city was destroyed by Kaloyan of Bulgaria (r. 1196–1207) in 1206 and rebuilt thereafter. In 1219, the city became the capital of the Crusader Duchy of Philippopolis, part of the Latin Empire. The Second Bulgarian Empire recovered the city in 1263, but lost it to Byzantine control before recapturing it in 1323. The Ottoman Empire conquered Philippopolis (Turkish: Filibe) in 1363 or 1364. During the 500 years of Ottoman rule, Filibe served as one of the important commercial and transportation nodes in the Ottoman Balkans. It also played a role as an administrative centre of various sanjaks and eyalets.
On 4 January 1878, at the end of the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878), Plovdiv was taken away from Ottoman rule by the Russian army. It remained within the borders of Bulgaria until July of the same year, when it became the capital of the autonomous Ottoman region of Eastern Rumelia. In 1885, Plovdiv and Eastern Rumelia joined Bulgaria.
There are many preserved ruins such as the ancient Plovdiv Roman theatre, a Roman odeon, a Roman aqueduct, the Plovdiv Roman Stadium, the archaeological complex Eirene, and others. Plovdiv is host to a huge variety of cultural events such as the International Fair Plovdiv, the international theatrical festival "A stage on a crossroad", the TV festival "The golden chest", and many more novel festivals, such as Night/Plovdiv in September, Kapana Fest, and Opera Open. The oldest American educational institution outside the United States, the American College of Sofia, was founded in Plovdiv in 1860 and later moved to Sofia.
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Plovdiv is located in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, Europe. The coordinates are 42.1539 latitude, 24.7500 longitude.
Plovdiv has a population of approximately 329,489 people, making it a city in Bulgaria.
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Essential numbers in Bulgaria
Vignette required for all roads outside towns.
Full driving guide for Bulgaria2 notable places within an hour's drive.
castle
A medieval fortress ruin with a surviving 13th-century church on a rock spur above the Chepelare river, beside the Asenovgrad–Smolyan road.
21 km · about 25 min drive
natural wonder
Two natural marble rock arches formed by a collapsed cave in the Rhodope mountains, reached by a paved road with a car park.
40 km · about 45 min drive
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