52 years ago the “Ancient Plovdiv” preservation area located on the three central hills of Plovdiv was declared an architectural preserved area. Plovdiv has many names throughout the centuries – Philipopolis, Poulpoudeva, Puldin, Trimontium…. Until its fall under Ottoman oppression in 1364 it had been destroyed and resurrected many times.
But it was only in the 18th and 19th c. when its new flourishing started. Plovdiv gradually grew into a first-class trade center. The slopes of the three central hills (known since Roman times as the Tri-montium) sooon got covered with houses bearing the characteristic architecture of the Bulgarian Revival period.
The three hills feature numerous monuments of culture that could trace down the historic development of the city – from antiquity, through Middle Ages to contemporary times….