Activity Review: Plovdiv Walking Tour
By far, one of our favorite activities is a good old fashion walking tour. In Bulgaria, there is a great company hosting walking tours 365 days a year (except in a COVID lockdown!).
We meet by the city hall fountain and thankfully they are still running tours in COVID times. Usually, there are tours at 11am and there are no reservations required. Today, we had the awesome Addie as our guide!
Historic Debate
Because we heard the general history of Bulgaria in Sofia, click here to read it!
Compared to Sofia, Plovdiv is possibly the oldest settlement that is still a current city. Depending on your viewpoint, Plovdiv either dates to 8,000BC as there are settlements in the Plovdiv “metro” area or the city dates to 6,000BC as they can date the old town that was never abandoned. This city is simply incredible! I had no idea that we were walking in history!
In 2019, Plovdiv was award the European City of Culture. Due to this recognition, the city boomed with tourism and more importantly, EU grant money to renovate, restore, and rebuild the city. Notwistanding, the money also helped small business owners and restaurants by injecting life in their neighborhoods. Addie said that 2019 was a banner year for tourism, only to be followed by 2020…
Great Roman Stadium
Hiding beneath the city center lies the Roman stadium. Partially excavated, mostly hidden by the city center’s buildings, the Roman stadium stretches for almost a mile. They did debate undercovering the ruins, but didn’t want to destroy city center!
Grand Mosque
Next to the Roman stadium ruins is the only mosque in Plovdiv. Because of the Ottoman history, this mosque is one of the most beautiful mosques in the country as it dates to the 15th century. The red and white-striped building is beautiful and is also surrounded by Turkish restaurants.
Kapana District
Just outside Old Town and the main pedestrian center is the Kapana District. Dating back to the 15th century, the district use to be the main merchant area with over 900 shops similar to the bazaars in Turkey. Once communism entered the picture, all the shops closed and the area became rundown. With the 2019 EU Capital of Culture award, the city was able to rejuvenate Kapana. Known for boutique cafes, restaurants, and bars, Kapana is now the heart and soul of the city.
Most Beautiful House
Hidden by walls is the most beautiful house in Plovdiv. Now a museum, the house is beautiful and brings German architecture to the city. Thankfully, we had good weather to bring this house to life! If you want to visit the inside, the museum shows the life at the time it was built in the 1700s.
Grand Finale
For the grand finale, the tour fittingly ended in the beautiful Roman theatre. Discovered in the 1960s, the theatre is absolutely beautiful. Complete with marble seats, there are even columns and sculptures in the background.
Our guide said that the summer concert series are fantastic and the acoustics are still amazing. While she said you can’t hear the street noise, we verified this statement the following day and could still hear street noise. Still, for a theatre dating back hundreds of years, it is still impressive.
The UnChartered Summary
Similar to most walking tours, we greatly enjoyed our tour in Plovdiv. Not only was the tour incredibly informative about the history and culture, the tour took us to all the important sights in the city!
- We felt incredibly COVID safe on the tour so you can truly attend the tour in any type of situation!
- Because of the history, we started to really love this city!