Today, at 11 am, the Jewish Cultural-Educational Organization ?SHALOM? organised official ceremony on the occasion of the completed restoration of the oldest synagogue in Bulgaria.. There are about a dozen synagogues all over our country but only the ones in Sofia and Plovdiv are active and functional. The ceremony was attended by many VIP guests: the US deputy-ambassador, the Jewish ambassador, the mayor of Plovdiv Dr. Ivan Chomakov, the regional governor Gyoka Hadjipetrov, etc.
More than a century ago, during construction work on new residential buildings on the Maria Louiza Blvd., the construction workers accidentally discovered an antique building, with the size of about 660 sq.m, featuring a huge room used for praying, two equally wide wings and a yard. The prayer room had magnificent flooring. A four-row dedication-inscription in Greek was also uncovered, giving detailed information about the donor Josef Cosmianos, who funded the decoration of the synagogue.
That is the only archeologically proven antique synagogue discovered so far in our lands. The construction is dated around the 3rd c., during the times of the Gothic invasions.