Plovdiv: Europe’s Oldest Continuously Inhabited City

Considered the oldest continuously inhabited city in Europe, Plovdiv in Bulgaria has a history and prehistory that dates back 8,000 years. The original inhabitants are unknown, but from its beginning as a small town of hunter-gatherers, it saw enormous growth throughout the millennia, becoming home to the Thracians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Ottomans, and of course, the Bulgarians who live there today.

It is no wonder that Plovdiv forms an important part of the culture and history of the region. The city reveals clues to the early history of European peoples as well as the vicissitudes of the ever-changing quest for power from the ancient to the modern era.

On the banks of the Maritsa river in what would become the historical region of Thrace, a settlement began to take shape in the Neolithic Period around 8,000 years ago. Evidence for this is found in what is known as the “settlement mounds” in and around the city. These small hills contain rich layers of archeological evidence of habitation that stretch back into the Neolithic Era.

In several of these mounds, the remains of dwellings were found. These first houses were built upon stilts and had clay floors. The walls of these dwellings were also coated with thick clay plaster. Each house had a fireplace and was filled with a myriad of equipment for farming, fishing, cattle breeding, and hunting.

Figurines depicting people and animals have been found in abundance. These items were made from various materials such as clay, bone, and even marble.

This early culture was known as the Karanovo culture and it extended throughout the area that is now Bulgaria. The people of the Karanovo culture were likely the ancestors of the Bronze and Iron Age Thracians.

The city of Plovdiv today includes a massive naturally fortified hill known as Nebet Tepe where evidence of habitation stretches back to 4,000 BCE. While relatively little is known about the early inhabitants, the site grew during the Iron Age to become a significantly powerful entity within the socio-political makeup of Thrace. It is believed that this fortification was a base of power for the local Bessi tribe.

During the period of the Greco-Persian Wars, Plovdiv was part of the Persian Empire. From 516 BCE, it was incorporated into the empire of Darius the Great. Power fluctuated back and forth as Persia launched successive invasions of Greece. In 492 BCE, Thrace was subjugated under the Persian general Mardonius. It lasted as a vassal state until 479 BCE when the Persians withdrew after being comprehensively defeated by the Greeks.

Thereafter, Plovdiv formed part of an independent Thracian state known as the Odrysian Kingdom. This kingdom was conquered by Philip II of Macedon in 342 BCE, and Plovdiv came under Macedonian rule and was renamed Philippopolis. Over the next few centuries, Plovdiv (or Philippopolis) changed hands a number of times. Under Alexander the Great, a Thracian revolt led to the establishment of a semi-independent Odrysian Kingdom, a suzerain of Alexander’s empire. Macedonian power was gradually eroded, but before Thrace could exercise full control, a wave of Celtic invasions saw Philippopolis destroyed somewhere around the 270s BCE.

In 183 BCE, Philip V of Macedon conquered Philippopolis, but the city was taken back by the Thracians soon after. In 72 BCE, it was taken by the Romans but recaptured by the Thracians who kept control of it until 46 CE when Thrace was added to the Roman Empire. Philippopolis served as the capital of this province.

Under Roman rule, Philippopolis experienced a golden age. It was an important trading hub, and attracted many immigrants, boosting the population and economy of the city. Huge public works were built across the city, including water works, city walls, and a sewerage system.

This period could not last forever, and the waning power of the Roman Empire gave the barbarian tribes on its borders the impetus to grab power for themselves. In 250 CE the city came under siege by the Goths. Unable to withstand the assault, Philippopolis capitulated and was sacked. Tens of thousands of the city’s inhabitants were slaughtered and many more fled.

After the Goths left, the Romans assumed control once again, and it would take a century before the city grew to the size it had been before the Gothic invasion. This hard work was undone again by the Huns under Attila in 441-442 CE and again by the Goths under the command of Theodoric Strabo in 471 CE. The Roman period came to an end with death and destruction for the city of Philippopolis.

After the fall of the Roman Empire, other peoples and cultures moved in to fill the void that was left behind. In Thrace, that void was filled by Slavic tribes who moved in relatively peacefully. Inherited by the Byzantine Empire, Thrace formed a frontier province on the northern border and a buffer zone to Constantinople (now Istanbul).

In the 7th century, however, the Kingdom of Bulgaria was established and the frontier between the Slavic tribes and the Byzantines became the Balkan Mountain Range which runs horizontally through modern-day Bulgaria. The southern half contained Philippopolis, which became a vital fortress town near the edge of Byzantine control.

Throughout the centuries that followed, the city changed hands many times between the invading Bulgars and the Byzantines. In 970, it was also conquered by the Kievans under Prince Svetoslav I who sacked the city and had thousands of its inhabitants impaled. The city was soon recaptured by the Byzantines. This state of affairs lasted until the Third Crusade from 1189-1192. Holy Roman armies under the leadership of Frederick I Barbarossa took the city from the Byzantines and gave it to Bulgaria with whom the Holy Roman Empire had a political union.

Although the Byzantine Empire was Christian, it fell prey to the Crusaders who viewed the Orthodox Church as a heretical construct that existed in opposition to Catholicism. As such, it was targeted during the subsequent Fourth Crusade. Byzantium as well as the European lands of the empire were captured by the Crusaders at the beginning of the 13th century. These lands constituted the “Latin Empire” which was intended to replace the legitimacy of the Byzantine Empire as the rightful successor to the East Roman Empire.

The Latin Empire was threatened not only by the remains of the Byzantine Empire to the west and to the east, but by the Bulgars to the north, and in the early 13th century, Philippopolis was captured by Tsar Kaloyan of Bulgaria, and handed to his successor Boril upon the death of Kaloyan in 1207. The Latins defeated Boril at the Battle of Philippopolis and returned control of the city to the Latin Empire. Philippopolis was then captured again by the Bulgars under Ivan Asen II before 1230. The ruins of Tsar Ivan Asen II’s fortress are still standing today, and constitute a tourist attraction ten miles southeast of the center of Plovdiv.

When Constantinople was taken, the Byzantine empire fractured into three rump states in addition to the Latin Empire. The Empire of Nicaea was the largest of these states and existed to the east of the Latin Empire, further east, on the coast of the Black sea was the Empire of Trebizond. To the west of the Latin Empire in what is now northwestern Greece, was the Despotate of Epirus.

The Nicaeans under the rule of Emperor John III Doukas Vatatzes exterminated all hope of the Latin Empire returning control of Philippopolis when the Nicaeans waged war against the Latins, capturing vast swathes of former Byzantine land, including much of the lands of Epirus. Philoppolis was returned to Nicene/ Byzantine control during this conflict, and in 1261, Constantinople was recaptured and the Byzantine empire was restored.

From 1341 to 1347, the Byzantine Empire endured a civil war, and Bulgaria, on the side of the victors was awarded Philippopolis along with several other cities as payment for the services it provided in helping draw the conflict to a victorious end.

Around 1363, Philippopolis was captured by the Ottoman Empire and renamed Filibe. It remained under Ottoman rule for 500 years until the Russo-Turkish War of 1877 to 1878 when the city was captured by the Russians. Thereafter it became the capital of the region of Rumelia. Although under nominal Ottoman rule, Rumelia was for all intents and purposes, autonomous, and it joined the Bulgarian state in 1885.

During the time of Ottoman rule, Plovdiv/Filibe was a center of national pride for the Bulgarians, and its cultures and traditions were preserved. The influences on the people of Plovdiv, however, could not be ignored. The city attracted many immigrants from different cultures, including Jews, Roma, Vlachs, Armenians, Greeks, and Arvanites. It became a melting pot of culture, and the city was subject to major Hellenization and Turkification efforts.

In the end, however, Plovdiv became part of Bulgaria, and its status today is firmly as a Bulgarian city with no other claimants. Plovdiv also played a major part in the re-establishment of the Bulgarian Church, a vital pillar of the Bulgarian national revival.

By the end of the 19th century, Plovdiv was, and it remains today, Bulgaria’s second biggest city after the capital, Sofia. Food and tobacco were two industries that became highly developed in Plovdiv, and the city underwent a boom in construction during the communist era.

Plovdiv Today

With successive waves of immigrants woven into the fabric of the city, people of Turkish, Greek, and many other foreign descent, now consider themselves Bulgarian, and those identifying as such in Plovdiv represent more than 80 percent of the population. Indeed, there is much for the inhabitants of this ancient city to be proud of.

Plovdiv is recognized as a major cultural center in Eastern Europe. It has 200 archeological sites with ancient ruins and buildings dotting the cityscape. Of particular note is the Roman theater which is still in use.

Medieval walls and towers still stand and are accompanied by old Ottoman baths and mosques. With many old buildings converted to museums and art galleries, the city is a paradise of culture, attracting tourists from all over the world.