A guide to Millennial Plovdiv

Plovdiv, modern Bulgaria's second largest city, has been continuously inhabited for at least 3,000 years - and it shows. The Romans built over the ancient Thracians, the Byzantines added to the Romans, the Ottomans turned Plovdiv into a Balkan hodgepodge of cultures, tastes and smells, the 19th century Revival Period left some remarkable architectural legacies, and the early 20th century spawned the development of urban culture unseen anywhere else in Bulgaria or southeastern Europe. Plovdiv used to be a city of Bulgarians, Greeks, Turks, Jews, Armenians, Czechs, Russians, Germans and Americans. Through the millennia it attracted a steady flow of settlers, merchants, journeymen, prophets, pilgrims, invaders, adventurers, travellers and con artists. Each of them contributed to the multifaceted, flamboyant, vivacious and unabashedly Slow-Living atmosphere of this major city that in 2019 was named European Capital of Culture. A Guide to Millennial Plovdiv shows and explains some of modern Plovdiv's aspects: its Jewish and Armenian heritage, its 19th century houses, its Roman mosaics and public spaces, its churches and its Communist-era successes and failures. Included is a section on what to see and do in the larger Plovdiv area, from Kalofer and Karlovo to the northern reaches of the Rhodope mountain range. Anyone who has ever been to Plovdiv, or plans to visit, will find this book an indispensable companion.