Day trip · Bulgaria’s second city
One of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in Europe: a Roman theatre still in use, an old town of painted houses and the creative quarter of Kapana.
Day trip feature
Thracians, Macedonians and Romans all left their mark on Plovdiv’s hills, and today it is one of the liveliest cities in Bulgaria.
Start at the Roman theatre, wander the painted houses of the old town, and end the day in the cafés and bars of Kapana.
Read the full back story below, then plan your trip.
The back story
One of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in Europe: a Roman theatre, an old town of painted houses and the creative quarter of Kapana.
Still in use
A beautifully preserved Roman theatre on the hillside of the old town, still used for summer performances.
Painted merchants’ houses
A hilltop quarter of cobbled lanes and painted 19th-century merchants’ houses, many now museums and galleries.
Galleries, cafés and bars
Plovdiv’s creative quarter, a maze of small streets full of galleries, cafés, craft beer and bars.
Under the main street
The curved end of a 2nd-century Roman stadium, beneath Plovdiv’s main pedestrian street.
Spectacular floor mosaics
A great early Christian basilica with colourful floor mosaics, shown under a modern museum building.
Train or coach
Trains and coaches run from Sofia to Plovdiv in about two to two and a half hours.
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