Plovdiv

Plovdiv (ancient Philippopolis), city in southern Bulgaria, capital of Plovdiv Region, on the Maritsa River. Plovdiv is a trading and market centre for the Plovdiv Basin and for an agricultural area producing tobacco and livestock. A manufacturing city as well, Plovdiv has cigarette-making, food-processing, and woodworking industries; textiles, metal, leather, and chemicals are also produced here. The city has an ancient gate and walls, a Catholic cathedral, old Orthodox churches as well as mosques, the ruins of a Turkish market and ancient baths. Plovdiv is also the site of the Ivan Vazov National Library (founded in 1879), Paisi Hilendarski University of Plovdiv (1961), and institutes of food, agriculture, and music.

Originally the Greek settlement of Eumolpias, Plovdiv was captured in 341 bc by Philip II of Macedonia, and was renamed Philippopolis. After Roman conquest in 46 bc, it was known as Trimontium, and was the capital of the Roman province of Thrace. The city was the site of many battles and was ruled successively by the Goths, Byzantines, Bulgarians, Greeks, Ottoman Turks, and Russians. It was made the capital of Eastern Rumelia under the Congress of Berlin in 1878 and was joined to the rest of Bulgaria in 1885. Population 340,638 (2001).