Plovdiv is the second-largest city of Bulgaria, standing on the banks of the Maritsa river in the historical region of Thrace. It has a population of 346,893 as of 2018 and 675,000 in the greater metropolitan area. The city has historically developed on seven syenite hills, some of which are 250 metres high. During most of its recorded history, Plovdiv was known by the name Philippopolis after Philip II of Macedon.
About Plovdiv, Bulgaria in brief
Plovdiv is the second-largest city of Bulgaria, standing on the banks of the Maritsa river in the historical region of Thrace. It has a population of 346,893 as of 2018 and 675,000 in the greater metropolitan area. The city has historically developed on seven syenite hills, some of which are 250 metres high. It is an important economic, transport, cultural, and educational center. During most of its recorded history, Plovdiv was known by the name Philippopolis after Philip II of Macedon. There are many ancient ruins such as the Roman theatre, a Roman aqueduct, and a Roman archaeological complex. In 1885, it became the autonomous Ottoman region of Eastern Rumelia and joined Eastern Bulgaria and Bulgaria. It was the European Capital of Culture for 2019 and is now the cultural capital of Bulgaria and the second largest city in the country after Sofia. In the past, the city has been known as Philippopolis, after Philip the Great, the king of ancient Macedonia, settling there both Thracians and 2,000 Macedonians and Greeks in 342 BCE. In Late Antiquity, Philippopolis was an important stronghold, but was sacked in 250, after the Siege of Philippopolis by the Goths led by Cniva, during the Crisis of the Third Century. 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.
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 Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius built a new wall around the city. It fell to the Bulgars of the First Bulgarian Empire in 863 during the reign of Boris I, having been briefly abandoned by the Christian inhabitants in 813 during a dispute with the khan Krum. In 1223, the Byzantine Empire recaptured the city before recapturing it in 1323. The Ottoman Empire conquered the city in 1878, at the end of the Russo-Turkish War. It remained within the borders of Bulgaria until July of the same year when it was taken away from Ottoman rule by the army of the Russian army. It became the capital of the autonomous region of Rumelia in 1885. It later became theonomous capital of Eastern Bulgaria in 1883, when it became part of the Bulgarian Republic of Riga and Eastern Bulgaria. It also became the capital of Eastern Ruptia in 1887, and later of the Republic of Roma in 1894, when the city became the seat of the Bulgarian Bosnia and Cyrillic Administrative Routes. The City of the Seven Hills is often referred to in Bulgaria as ‘The City of the seven Hills’ because of these hills.
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This page is based on the article Plovdiv, Bulgaria published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 31, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
