Plovdiv

Plovdiv, given different names during the centuries, has witnessed the history of the region and the Balkan Peninsula. It still keeps the ruins reminding of the Thracians, the Romans, the Slavs, the Bulgarian State, the Byzantines and the Turks. In 342 BC the town was conquered by Philip II of Macedon, father of Alexander of Macedon, and named Philipopolis.The founder of the town placed a strong garrison in it and made it a centre of Thracia. In the middle of 1st century AD Philipopolis was seized by the Romans and was incorporated into the Roman Empire, hence the Roman name of the town -Trimontium ('the town on the three hills'). During the 2nd-3rd century AD Trimontium became the metropolis of the large province Thracia Romana and had its own Senate. At the end of the 4th century, Trimontium was included into the boundaries of the Eastern Roman Empire - Byzantium. During the 6th century Slavs settled down there. After the foundation of the Bulgarian State in 681, Plovdiv was a border town for a long period, frequently changing its sovereigns. In 1364 the Turks invaded Plovdiv and gave it a new name-Philibe. Being on the threshold of the Orient, the city turned into a busy centre of trade and handicrafts, along with Istanbul, Thessaloniki and Edirne. In the 19th century the city was the centre of the Bulgarian Renaissance. After the Liberation of Bulgaria for a short period of time Plovdiv was capital of the autonomous province Eastern Rumelia, which, after Bulgaria’s reunion in 1885, became a part of united Bulgaria. In the 20th century Plovdiv became the second most significant economic and cultural centre in Bulgaria.