Things to Do in Plovdiv: The Old Town, Roman Ruins and Kapana

Plovdiv is known for its layers: a Roman theater that still stages opera, a stadium under the main shopping street, Ottoman mosques and an Old Town of painted 19th century merchant houses spread over three hills. This guide covers the sights I'd pick in each part of the city, the hills with the best views, what the paid sights cost in euros and how I'd spend two days there.

Plovdiv at a glance

Plovdiv is Bulgaria's second largest city, with about 350,000 people and evidence of settlement going back more than 6,000 years. The Romans called it Philippopolis, the Ottomans Filibe, and both empires left buildings you can still walk into. The city grew up on seven hills above the Maritsa River, and six of them still stand.

The center is small enough to walk. The Old Town sits on Nebet Tepe, Taksim Tepe and Dzhambaz Tepe, the main pedestrian street runs south from its foot, and Kapana fills the blocks in between. From the capital it is about 2 hours by bus, and a Sofia to Plovdiv day trip works if you only have one day, as long as you buy the return ticket when you arrive.

The Roman sights in Plovdiv

Roman Philippopolis was the biggest trading city in the province of Thrace, and Plovdiv has more unearthed Roman mosaics than any other city in Bulgaria.

Roman Theatre

The Ancient Theatre of Philippopolis, one of the best preserved Roman theaters in the world, is the sight Plovdiv is famous for. It was built under Emperor Trajan in the late 1st or early 2nd century, sits in the saddle between Taksim Tepe and Dzhambaz Tepe, and held about 7,000 people on its marble rows. Behind the stage, freestanding columns have been rebuilt from the original fragments.

It opens from 9 AM to 6 PM from April to October and to 5 PM from November to March. In summer the Opera Open festival, the International Folklore Festival and rock nights fill the seats, and I'd plan an evening around one if the dates line up.

Roman Stadium

The Roman Stadium of Philippopolis was built in the early 2nd century under Hadrian. It ran about 240 m long and 50 m wide and seated about 30,000 people for games and music and poetry contests.

Most of it lies under the main street, and you can see a section through the floor inside the H&M store. The northern curve is open below Dzhumaya Square and free to look at. A short 3D film about the stadium runs several times a day next to it, and it is a good stop with kids.

Bishop's Basilica

The Bishop's Basilica of Philippopolis is the newest big sight in town. It opened to visitors in 2021 and holds about 2,000 square meters of 4th century floor mosaics.

The bird mosaic is the one to find. Entry costs about €5 on timed slots, so I'd book the day before. If you like the mosaics, the Small Basilica nearby is a 5th to 6th century church found by builders in 1988, with more floors and a short film in English. Trakart, in the Archeological underpass in the center, shows 2nd and 3rd century mosaics and Roman glass. The ruins of the Ancient Forum and the Eastern Gate, which stood on the Roman road to Byzantium, are free to look at from the street.

The Old Town: Revival houses on three hills

Plovdiv's Old Town is where the city's 19th century merchants built houses the size of small palaces: upper floors that hang out over cobbled lanes, painted fronts, carved wooden ceilings and walled gardens. Many are museums now, and the lanes between them are free to wander.

Hisar Kapia

Hisar Kapia is the stone gate you walk through on the way up into the Old Town. The arch dates from the 11th century and stands on the foundations of a Roman gate, one of three entrances to the ancient city.

Under Ottoman rule, wealthy merchants built their houses straight onto the fortress walls on both sides, and the ground floors still sit on the medieval stones. Stand on either side of the arch for the photo; both work.

Regional Ethnographic Museum

Right next to Hisar Kapia, the Kuyumdzhioglu House holds the Regional Ethnographic Museum. Its dark blue front, with a curved gable and gold swirls, is decorated in Baroque style.

Inside are regional costumes, crafts, musical instruments and rooms laid out the way a rich Plovdiv family lived. It opens Tuesday to Sunday, from 9 AM to 6 PM in summer and to 5 PM in winter, and the garden in front is worth a slow look even if you skip the rooms.

Hindliyan House and the other house museums

Hindliyan House was built for Stepan Hindliyan, an Armenian merchant, and it is my pick if you only see one house. The walls carry paintings of European cities, and a fountain inside runs with rose water.

Balabanov House hosts exhibitions and concerts, Klianti House mixes Revival style with Art Nouveau, and Nedkovich House shows another merchant home. The small Hippocrates Pharmacy Museum, with its old medicine jars, needs only a short stop. Most of these open from 9 AM to 5:30 PM and charge about €2.50 to €3.50.

Nebet Tepe

Nebet Tepe is the northernmost of the three Old Town hills and the oldest part of Plovdiv. People lived here from about 4,000 BC, the Thracians fortified it, and Philip II of Macedon built the first city walls in 342 BC.

Today it is a free hilltop of boulders, wall stumps and tower ruins with a view over the city and the hills around it. It is a short climb from Hisar Kapia, and the Old Town churches of Sts Constantine and Helena and the Holy Mother of God are close by.

Kapana and the city center

Below the Old Town, the city center holds Plovdiv's busiest streets, its main mosque and its central park. Everything here is free.

Kapana

Kapana, "the trap", is named for its tangle of narrow lanes in the old craftsmen's quarter. Each street is still named after the trade once practiced on it, and the old workshops now hold galleries, coffee bars, craft beer places and small restaurants.

Plovdiv renovated the quarter for its 2019 year as European Capital of Culture, and murals now cover many of its walls. It is only about four blocks by four, with strings of little flags hung over several streets. Come in the evening, when people drink outside on the street and the quarter is at its liveliest.

The Main Street

Knyaz Alexander I Street, which locals simply call Glavnata, the main one, is the pedestrian spine of the center. It runs about 1.75 km from Tsentralen Square north to Dzhumaya Square, past shops, cafes and old pastel facades.

Fashion and brand shops line most of it, and I'd use it to walk from the train station end of town up to the Old Town.

Dzhumaya Mosque

The Dzhumaya Mosque, the Friday Mosque, stands above the stadium at the end of the main street. It dates from the 15th century and is one of the oldest Ottoman buildings in Bulgaria, with brick and stone walls, lead domes and a patterned minaret.

It is still a working mosque, open to visitors outside prayer times with shoes off and shoulders covered. It is older and plainer than Sofia's Banya Bashi Mosque, and I like it more.

Tsar Simeon Garden and the Singing Fountains

Tsar Simeon Garden is Plovdiv's central park, laid out in 1881 for the city's first trade fair by the Swiss gardener Lucien Chevalas. Its old trees and lawns sit a few minutes west of the main street.

The Singing Fountains in its pond put on free evening shows of water, light and music, and I'd end the second day here.

Plovdiv's hills and viewpoints

The hills are Plovdiv's free viewpoints, and each one shows the city from a different side. The table covers the five you can reach on foot from the center.

Dzhendem Tepe, the sixth hill, also has good sunset views.

Sahat Tepe

Sahat Tepe means the hill of the clock, after the tower on its top. A clock tower has stood here since at least 1623, and the clock in it today was made in Vienna and installed in 1883.

It is the quickest climb in the center, and young Plovdivians use it as a meeting spot. I'd do it between the main street and Kapana.

Bunardzhik and the Alyosha Monument

Bunardzhik is the hill with the giant soldier on top. The Alyosha Monument honors the Soviet army, and locals still argue about it; the city has tried to remove it more than once.

The climb takes 30 to 40 minutes, and the view from the top is the one I'd make the effort for. If Soviet monuments interest you, Sofia gathered many of its communist-era statues into the Museum of Socialist Art, along with the red star from the old Party House.

Plovdiv prices: what is free and what costs money

Plovdiv costs little to see well, and the paid sights charge a few euros each.

Three house museums and the basilica come to about €15 for two days of sightseeing, plus the theater ticket.

Two days in Plovdiv

This is the plan I'd use. Day one does the Roman city and the Old Town museums while they are open, and day two is slower: Kapana, the hills and the park.

With one day only, day one on its own covers the highlights and still ends in Kapana. With a third day, take the car south to Bachkovo Monastery and Asen's Fortress.

Eating and drinking in Plovdiv

I'd keep lunch long and slow on an Old Town terrace and save the bigger meal for Kapana in the evening.

For Bulgarian dishes at dinner, I'd try Aylyakria in Kapana and Pavaj first. In the Old Town, Puldin sits in the rooms of a former monastery of whirling dervishes. Start with a shopska salad and a clay pot of kavarma, the two Bulgarian food classics I'd order on a first night.

Plovdiv sits in the Thracian Valley, the red wine country among the Bulgarian wine regions and the home of Mavrud, a dark, firm native grape. It is the glass I'd order with dinner here.

Day trips from Plovdiv

Plovdiv is the base for the Rhodope Mountains to the south, and both trips below are easiest by car.

Bachkovo Monastery

Bachkovo is the second largest monastery in Bulgaria, in a forested valley south of Plovdiv. Its courtyard holds red-roofed churches and galleries, and it is still a working monastery.

If you only have room for one monastery on your trip, Rila Monastery is the bigger one, but Bachkovo is far easier to reach from here.

Asen's Fortress

Asen's Fortress stands on a rock above the road south, near Asenovgrad, on the way to Bachkovo. Its medieval church still sits on the cliff edge, with the ruined walls below it.

I'd pair the two in one half-day afternoon: the fortress first for the view, then Bachkovo. With more days, the Rhodope Mountains farther south make a trip of their own.

Where to stay in Plovdiv

The Old Town is where I'd stay. You sleep among the house museums, and Kapana is a few minutes downhill. The catch is cobbles and steep lanes with a suitcase.

The center around the main street and Kapana suits you if you want bars and restaurants outside the door. The train station is about a 10 minute walk south of the pedestrian zone, so staying near it saves little.

Best time to visit Plovdiv

Spring and autumn are the best months. April to June and September to October bring warm days for the hills without the summer heat.

Summer is the festival season, with opera and concerts in the Roman Theatre, but Plovdiv runs 3 to 5 degrees Celsius warmer than Sofia, so I'd climb the hills in the morning or at sunset. The Autumn Arts Salon fills the galleries in autumn, and the International Folklore Festival is one of the big summer festivals in Bulgaria for dance and costume. Winter is quiet and cold, and the theater closes at 5 PM.

Plovdiv on a longer trip

Plovdiv fits naturally into a loop of central Bulgaria. Koprivshtitsa is 90 km to the north, with painted Revival houses that are smaller and quieter than Plovdiv's; I'd pick Koprivshtitsa for a village and Plovdiv for a city. The bus from Plovdiv to Veliko Tarnovo, the medieval capital, takes about 2.5 hours.

If Roman Plovdiv is what you came for, Sofia has its own Roman city under the streets: the ruins of Serdica sit right in the metro station at the center. Plovdiv and Rila are the two trips I'd put first among the day trips from Sofia, and on a one-week Bulgaria itinerary I'd give Plovdiv two nights.