There is a city of more than a thousand years !!
Plovdiv exist without interruption of VI millennium BC, but his name until the middle of the IV century BC It is unknown. According to some authors name is Evmolpia alternative name mentioned by Ammianus Marcellinus in the IV century.
In 342 BC the city was conquered by Philip II of Macedonia, which strengthens it with fortified walls and in later sources he bears his name - Filipopolis. In subsequent centuries the city is called in different languages with versions of that name. In ancient times used his Thracian form Pulpudeva or Pulpudava. After large-scale construction of the Flavian dynasty in the city for a while it was called Flavia Filipopolis. In Old sources used options Papaldin, Puldin and Pladin from which comes the modern name of Plovdiv. Greek form Filipopolis comes the Turkish name of the city - Filibe.
In separate periods have been used other names the city, which remains unstable. Some Greek authors call Poneropolis (literally "city of thieves / cheaters") peoyrativno name probably aimed at command of the city Macedonians. In the Roman era used the name Trimontium ( "Three Hills" - because of the three hills on which the city is located in Antiquity).
City of Plovdiv
Bulgaria
Life in Plovdiv is not interrupted for nearly eight millennia, making his story very rich and interesting. Numerous nations lived in the city have left traces of its presence in over 12 m thick cultural layers and constructions of the city.
The oldest traces of habitation on the territory of today's city of Plovdiv are of VI millennium BC, when the first permanent settlements occur in the city. These are several Neolithic settlements like this in Yasa Tepe 1 neighborhood Philipovo and Yasa Tepe 2 in the neighborhood Lauta. The earliest known settlement of Three Hills is revealed to Nebet and dates from the Copper Age (IV-III millennium BC). It has been inhabited continuously since then until today, so it is regarded as the initial stage of development of the city. During the Iron Age settlement of Nebet fortified point of the Thracian people Besi and in the V century BC It is included in Odrysian kingdom.
In 342 BC the village was conquered by the Macedonian king Philip II, who gave him his name - Filipopolis used in different variants today. At that time the city was surrounded with strong walls, but to 320 BC Odrysian kingdom restored their independence. During the Macedonian government and in the ensuing Hellenistic era Filipopolis was turned into a city and one of the important centers of Thrace.
III-I century BC is a period of political instability in Thrace - Odrysian kings fall depending on the Roman Republic, often bursting strife and mass uprisings. In 183 BC Philipopol was conquered by the Macedonian king Philip V, but a little later Odrisses him back. In 72 BC the city was conquered briefly by the Roman general Marcus Terentius Varro Lucullus during his march against the Bessi Thracian but soon recovered its power over the city. At the beginning of the I century Thracian rebels besieged in Philipopol supported by the Romans king Remetalk II.
Filipopolis final fall of the Roman Empire in the creation of the province of Thrace in 46 years. During the Roman era the city became an important point on the road Via Militaris, connecting Singidunum to Byzantium. Here he crosses paths leading to Eskus near the Danube limes and in Nicopolis ad Nestrum to the other major route in the Balkans - Via Egnatia. As the main city (metropolis) of the province in the city is the headquarters of the Union of Thracian (Κοινόν των Θρακων), whose members are representatives of different cities. According to widespread opinion, the city received the title of metropolis at the time of Emperor Septimius Severus, but there are some opinions that this happened early in the reign of Trajan.
At least 220, the Filipopolis neokorska received an honorary title that entitles the city to have a temple dedicated to the imperial cult. This is the occasion Perinthus, seat of the governor of Thrace, to emphasize its dual neokor. Evidenced minted in town mint medallions of Emperor Elagabalus and official inscriptions from the time of Alexander Severus.
During the Roman period in Philipopol build public buildings, theater, forum, treasury, temples, baths, bulevteriona (Odeon), a major stadium. With the expansion the city left outline of the Three Hills and spreads in the valley, the old fortifications were built again, and in 172 the emperor Marcus Aurelius stands second fortress wall to cover the expanded city. Trimontsium has extensive water system, including reservoirs, tanks, pipelines and two aqueducts, the only such facilities in today Balgariya.Razkopki in the modern city today reveal only a small part of the ancient past of the Old Town.
In 250 years, when the first major invasion of the Goths in the Balkans, they besieged Philipopol protected by the Roman commander Priscus. Attempts by Emperor Decius Traian to help the besieged for frustrated after the defeat of his army at Beroe and the city was conquered, perhaps with the assistance of the very Priscus. The town was completely burned down, many of its inhabitants, according to Ammianus Marcellinus 100 000 people were killed and others were taken prisoner.
After the burning of the city by the Goths Filipopolis shrink within the city walls and peripheral neighborhoods are abandoned. Only towards the middle of the IV century it restores the previous size. Many of destroyed public buildings were restored, often larger than the original.
Reforms of Emperor Diocletian at the end of the III century Thrace province is divided into several parts and Filipopolis became the center of one of them covering part of Thrace west of Chirpan Heights, which retains the same name.
Philipopol impresses many ancient writers. The most famous description is the ancient Greek writer of II century. Lucian, who knew with great detail life in Philipopol and is the only ancient writer whose eyewitness testimony is preserved until today.
After the division of the Roman Empire at the end of the IV century Philipopol remains in the Eastern Roman Empire, within which is the better part of the next millennium. In the middle of the VI century under Emperor Justinian I, were restored and upgraded the fortress walls around the three hills and around the city built dozens of ancillary fortifications. Over the next decades Thrace was repeatedly attacked by Bulgarians, Avars and Slavs, and in 584 years Philipopol itself is undergoing an unsuccessful siege of the Avars.
At the beginning of the VII century around the city built a second fortress wall covering neighborhoods east and south of Three Hills. At that time much of the Balkans mass entering various Slavic peoples. South of Philipopol, right down to the region of Thessaloniki, establish drougoubitai, which later was established Dragovitiyska episcopate within Filipopolskoto diocese. There were no reports Slavs to attack the city, but it is assumed that Slavs settled in it peacefully.
According to sources from the VII century Filipopolskoto diocese covers bishoprics based in Diocletianopolis (today Hisar) and unidentified Sevastopol and Diospol and Metropolitan called "Exarch of Thrace Dragovitsa." In the VIII century subordinate to Filipopolskoto metropolitan bishops are more Beroe, Mark, Litoprosopos, Dekastera and Levedos.
After the establishment of the First Bulgarian Empire at the end of the VII century Philipopol became an important outpost of the Byzantine influence in the Balkans. During the long wars of the Empire of Bulgaria in VIII century in Plovdiv are settled many colonists from Armenia and Syria, including a significant number of adherents of Manichaeism and Pavlikyan.
During the campaigns of Bulgarian ruler Krum in 811-813 year when he destroyed many Thracian cities and takes their residents north of Philipopol population abandoned the city and fled to safer areas in the south. In 836 years the city was conquered by the Bulgarian ruler Malamir, as appears to be transmitted and the change of power happens without much bloodshed. Philipopol remains within Bulgaria to 970 years when it was captured by Kievan Prince Svyatoslav I, to plundering the city and impales its 20 000 inhabitants. After the expulsion of Kyiv troops from the Balkans next year Philipopol again is connected to the Eastern Roman Empire.
Philipopol recovering quickly after the Russian massacres in and around the city are again inhabited and Manichaean Paulicians of Armenia and Syria. He became one of the main pillars of Emperor Basil II in his long wars that led to the destruction of the First Bulgarian Empire. From the middle of XI century the town was under threat of attacks in Thrace of Pechenegs and Cumans, and continued Paulician uprising of Travel and therefore around it were built additional fortifications. Emperor Alexios I Komnenos reside while in Philipopol, making efforts to enforce orthodoxy among Paulician.
In Philipopol relatively peacefully pass first (1096) and the Second Crusade (1149) as the city was formed Latin Quarter with Western traders and craftsmen. In the Third Crusade in 1089 garrison and many residents to abandon the city and it was conquered and plundered by the troops of Emperor Frederick I, who remained there for six months.
In subsequent years Philipopol it affected by increasing political instability in the region. In 1193 the governor of Filipopolskoto topic Konstantin Angel Duka be declared emperor, but was captured and blinded. In 1196 as governor of the province was appointed Bulgarian boyar Ivanko, but in the 1198-1200 year he managed independently in alliance with Bulgaria. In 1204 Fourth Crusade conquered Constantinople and the beginning of the Latin Empire, and Philipopol became the capital of the Emperor's vassal duchy. In 1205 the Crusaders were forced to leave the city, burning part of it, and a little later he was captured by new destruction of Bulgarian Tsar Kaloyan. The city remained under Bulgarian control to Filipopolskoto battle in 1208, when the Dukes managed again to impose his authority.
Philipopol probably permanently lost by the Dukes after the Battle of Klokotnitsa in 1230, although the duchy continues to exist formally until at least 40 years. Over the next 140 years the city eight times passes by peaceful or military means by Bulgarian under Byzantine control and vice versa, within the limits of Bulgaria in 1230-1246, 1254-1256, 1257-1277, 1322-1332 and 1344-1371 year.
Philipopol was conquered by the Ottoman Empire in 1371. Chernomen combat troops beylerbey Lala Sahin progress of the city, the Bulgarian garrison abandoned it and the residents, led by the Archbishop, transmitted voluntarily. Filibe has become Sultan hass within pasture-Sanjak of Rumelia Eyalet. The city was badly affected by the wars of the Ottoman interregnum - initially controlled by Süleyman Çelebi, in 1410 he was captured by Musa Çelebi, which destroys the fortress walls, killing many residents and others emigrated from the city.
With demolished fortifications and got deep inside the Ottoman Empire Filibe lost its strategic importance to the castle, but in the middle of the XV century, the Ottomans carried out large-scale reconstruction of the city, accompanied by significant public works. West of Three Hills is based main mosque Cuma Mosque, built a new bridge over the Maritsa north which forms the neighborhood Karshiaka. Near the bridge beylerbey Shahbedin grazing based large imaret of which has been preserved Imaret Mosque. Between the bridge and Cuma mosque is shaped area with many new inns and markets, which remains the commercial center of the city by the end of the Ottoman era, but largely destroyed in the XX century.
Besides the significant Muslim populations established in the city during this period, there remain significant Byzantine, Bulgarian, Armenian and Paulician communities and smaller but active in economic life group Ragusans. In the XVI century in Plovdiv settled a large number of Sephardi Jews, and in the XVII century arrives compact group of Armenians from Galicia. In XVII century of Paulician accept Catholicism, and the rest gradually lose their identity. At this time starts and faster growth of the Bulgarian population in the city.
"St.. Mary "
In XVIII century Plovdiv has established itself as a leading economic center within the Balkan Peninsula with the continuing expansion of the traditional homespun and other textile industries. The city is not directly affected by the unrest of kardzhaliystvoto at the end of the century, but they led to the resettlement of many refugees - Bulgarians from Thrace and Greeks from Epirus and Thessaly.
The end of the unrest and the relative liberalization after the Edict of Gülhane by the 1839 relaunch of economic life - Abadjiyska production began to concentrate in larger enterprises have been established trading houses with large-scale activity from Manchester to Calcutta in 1845 Mihalaki Gyumyushgerdan founded the first textile factory. The leading role in this process are Bulgarian, Armenian and Greek communities. During this period many of the churches in the city are reconstructed, built and new based on the first modern schools in different communities - Bulgarians, Greeks, Armenians, Catholics. In Plovdiv work many representatives of Bratzigovo, Debar and Samokov school forms are characteristic style of Plovdiv house.
In 1850 Bulgarian community in Plovdiv based on first class school, which in 1868 became the second school in Bulgaria after Aprilov High School in Gabrovo. In the 50s the city was at the center of the Bulgarian-Greek religious conflict. The unwillingness of the Greek community to allow worship in Bulgarian part of the Orthodox churches in the city led to the removal of pro-Greek Metropolitan Hrisant physical clashes between the two countries and the introduction of worship in the cathedral of Bulgarian "Virgin Mary". After the release of the Bulgarian exarchate to 1906 in Plovdiv has two Orthodox bishops - Bulgarian and Greek.
Plovdiv at the end of XIX century.
Reportedly visited the city in 1870. American missionaries, it has 30,000 inhabitants, 15,000 of them are Turkish, 9000 Orthodox Bulgarians, 2000 Bulgarian Catholics, 2000 Greeks and the rest - mostly Jews and Armenians. They determine Plovdiv as the most important cultural and political center of the Bulgarians after the capital of the Empire Istanbul.
In 1874 Plovdiv is connected with railway to Constantinople.
Street of Plovdiv, 1885
Bulgarian community in Plovdiv participated in revolutionary activities in the late XIX century. In 1869 the city, a committee of the Internal Revolutionary Organization. The plans for the April Uprising in 1876 provides the ignition of a large fire in Plovdiv, which causes panic - attempt is made, but burned only a few shops. Some participants in Plovdiv Committee shall include in the uprising elsewhere. After suppression of the uprising many residents of the rebellious villages were taken in Plovdiv, where some of them were tried and many were hanged in the streets.
During the Russo-Turkish War Plovdiv was conquered by Russian troops in mid-January 1878. General Iosif Gurko commands it reaches Karshiaka West squad on 15 January. Plovdiv himself was captured by a dragoon squadron, commanded by Captain Alexander Burago that crosses the river reconnaissance mission, but caused panic among the Ottoman forces and a few hours established control over the city.