US travel website highlights Plovdiv as an ancient destination

Plovdiv is one of four European cities that captivate the hearts of history lovers, without the tourist crowds of Rome and Athens. The American online travel portal Travel Off Path considers these cities unjustly underrated, despite offering foreign visitors everything they seek in terms of ancient history and landmarks—from historic temples and ancient amphitheaters to the stories of emperors who built entire civilizations.

''Bulgaria’s second-largest city is a sprawling open-air museum of Greco-Roman remains, Byzantine churches, Ottoman mosques and Bulgarian revival mansions that often gets overlooked by travelers'', the portal writes.

‘Built across seven hills, much like Rome, it is best known for its hillside ancient theater, perched, with row upon row of restored marble seating and a reconstructed stage that still provides the backdrop of summer plays and sold-out open air concerts. Buried beneath the main thoroughfare, the Roman Stadium is yet another major highlight: built in the early 2nd century AD, during the reign of Emperor Hadrian, much of it now lies beneath the modern shops and cafés lining Knyaz Alexander I Street. Plovdiv is pure, unadulterated, in-your-face ancient history, from the Roman remains scattered around the Historic Center that crop up when you least expect them, to the climb up Nebet Tepe, a prominent hill home to traces of a Chalcolithic settlement and fortifications built and rebuilt by Thracians, Romans, Byzantines, and medieval rulers''. The other cities featured are Nîmes in France, Évora in Portugal, and Mérida in Spain.

Edited by Ivo Ivanov

Translated by Kostadin Atanasov