Roman Stadium - Plovdiv

The magnificent Roman Stadium in Plovdiv is located in the very heart of the city, under the modern shopping center. Its rostrums were built over the Sahat tepe and Taxim tepe (“tepe” is a Turkish word, meaning “hill”) during II century. It reproduces the layout of the stadium in Delphi, Greece, and the marble seats accommodated 30 000 spectators of games and gladiator fights. The stadium has the form of horseshoe and is 180 meters long. Some archeologists think that the first games were organized here during the ruiling of emperor Septimus Severus, which is as early as 193-211. The flashiest competitions were the Alexandrian games, which were organized following the model of the Greek Olympic games. The main sport disciplines were the throwing of disk and spear, running, jumping, fighting, shooting. The games were held once each 4 years and continued for a few days.