HISTORY

History

PLOVDIV HISTORY

Ancient times 

The primary ancient settlements on the domain of present-day Plovdiv showed up amid the Neolithic time frame, over 8000 years prior. They convey the contingent assignment "settlement hills" and contain rich social layers in which the archeologists discovered apparatuses, ceramics, objects of regular day to day existence and religious love. 

Life in them kept amid the Copper Age, the Bronze Age and halfway in the Late Iron Age. This backings the hypothesis that Thracians' precursors have possessed the present Bulgarian grounds since the New Stone Age. 

A standout amongst the best contemplated hills is Yasa Tepe in the Plovdiv quarter of Lauta. The archeological materials found there are indistinguishable to the discoveries from the hills in Brezovska Street in Plovdiv. The most punctual social layers of these Neolithic settlements uncover hints of abodes, incorporated of stakes skewered with the ground, with mud floors and dividers, put with thick earth mortar. Each room is outfitted with a chimney and rich stock, which demonstrates that its occupants were occupied with farming, dairy cattle rearing, chasing and angling. 

The primary developed oat grains were wheat and grain and the first reproduced residential creatures – goats, sheep, pigs, wild oxen and puppies. The found clique objects – symbols of ladies, men and creatures are made of dirt, bone and all the more once in a while of marble. In them the Neolithic man has put his profound respect for the lady and her job and effect on life and individuals. 

Amid the accompanying Chalcolithic period the home framework is extended and progressed. The Eneolithic earthenware production achieves a high level of down to earth and tasteful structure with unparalleled shading and embellishment. A really remarkable show-stopper is the found in Yasa Tepe four-legged utensil, decorated with white texture and painted in red ocher. 

A standout amongst the most intriguing ancient settlements on the region of present-day Plovdiv is the normally invigorated northern slope of the Three-slope Massif Nebet tepe. Life here has never halted since its foundation until today. This town denotes the start of the biggest and most imperative antiquated city in present Bulgarian grounds. The most punctual layers are ineffectively examined. Amid the Iron Age it developed and created as a strengthened Thracian settlement with a noteworthy job in the socio-political advancement of Thrace. Analysts interface it to the Thracian clan Bessi and Odrysians. 

Artifact 

Fundamentals of state 

Amid VI century and the principal half of V century BC, the focal point of the Bessi's political power were the western parts of the Plovdiv field, while the eastern parts are occupied by the vast Thracian clan of Odrisses. After the foundation of the Odrysian state amidst V century BC, it started to assume an overwhelming job in these terrains and consumed the state association of the Bessi. 

Amidst IV century BC old Macedonia remained as a noteworthy military-political factor in the Southeastern Europe. In 342 BC, Macedonian ruler Philip II broke the obstruction of the Thracians and enslaved them. He assessed the vital topographical and key position of the Thracian settlement of Nebet Tepe and transformed it into a help post of the consequent extension. Antiquated creators noticed that the city was Philip's work, and in this way it bears his name – Philippopolis. Thracians embraced that name and deciphered it as Pulpudeva. In spite of the concise Macedonian colonization in Thrace, mid IV century BC is considered as the start of its urbanization. After the IV century BC Philippopolis developed as political and financial focal point of Thrace. New dividers were developed, which circle the Three slopes. 

The appropriation of coins with the engraving "Odrisses" in the city and its area and information from archeological examinations have appeared amid this period the city and its surroundings were occupied by Odrisses. A few analysts trust that the Thracian name of the town toward the finish of III – II century BC was Odrisses and it was the boss political and managerial focal point of the Odrysian state. The old Greek student of history Polybius in his "History" portrays the success of Philippopolis by the Macedonian ruler Philip V in 189 BC. Here is a piece of his story: 

"...He set out with his military against the savages. He crossed the mid of Thrace and attacked the terrains of the Odrysae, the Bessae and the Denteleti. When they came to the purported Philippopolis, its occupants fled to the neighboring mountains and he took the city by strike. After he tramped the entire plain and annihilated a portion of the occupants and other guaranteed him in their faithfulness, he pulled back leaving an army in Philippopolis. The army, be that as it may, was ousted by the Odrisses, who promptly disavowed from the given guarantees ..." 

This time of exhaustive sprout of the Thracian culture is luxuriously recorded with archeological material. The Thracians were great warriors, developers, agriculturists, shepherds, mineworkers and specialists. The most critical finding is the unprecedented Panagyurishte Treasure that is put away in the Archeological Museum in Plovdiv. It is made of unadulterated gold with absolute load of 6.154 kilograms presumably in the Anatolian city Lampsakos and isn't just a perfect work of art of the Thracian toreutics however an imperative demonstration of the political relations of the dynastic houses and Asia Minor. 

Roman region 

In the I century BC a Roman development started in the place where there is the Thracians. Philippopolis and its region turned into the scene of savage wicked fights. In 72 BC the Roman general Marcus Terentius Varro Lucullus vanquished the valley of Maritsa out of the blue, including Philippopolis, which the Romans called Trimontsium (The city of three slopes). 

The Romans made the Thracian rulers their vassals. In 15-11 BC the extraordinary insubordination of the Bessi broke out, driven by their cleric Vologes. The obstruction of one of the incredible Thracian clans was crushed and part of it was subjugated and sold far from Thrace, and another part was later resettled in the present Dobrudja. By 45 AD there was a Thracian kingdom, a Roman vassal, which incorporated the grounds of present-day Plovdiv area. In 21 AD ejected a greatuprising of Odrysians, Diies and Coilaletaes. They even assaulted Philippopolis where the habitation of the Roman viceroyalty was. 

In 26 BC the Thracians living north of Philippopolis to the Balkan mountain began an another uprising, however they were vanquished once more. Most likely in 45 BC the autonomy of the Thracian kingdom was killed and the Emperor Claudius made the Roman area of Thrace. The memory protected by the Roman student of history Tacitus remains – of the boldness and fortitude of the Thracians in the miserable fights. 

The Plovdiv field was an imperative junction crossing point of the principle street courses in the Roman time, interfacing the capital of the realm with Asia Minor, the Aegean, Moesia and Dacia. Philippopolis was a vital purpose of the corner to corner street from Western Europe to Constantinople. In the meantime, it was the end station of the Roman street from Eskus at the Danube through the Troyan Pass of Thrace. Parts of the continuation of this street south through the Rhodopes to the Aegean have been found. 

Antiquated city 

In I-IV century Philipopol turned into the biggest city (metropolitan) of the area of Thrace. Here, without precedent for the inside of Thrace, individuals started to mint "pseudo-self-governing" coins, primarily bronze ones. The heads Domitian (81-96), Trajan (98-117) and Hadrian (117-138) qualified the city for do it without the intercession of the Roman legates which managed incidentally. 

For Philippopolis it is vital to be noticed the nearness of two principle parts, normal of the topographic structure of the Greek city of the Archaic and the Classical period – Acropolis on the Three Hills and town in the plain south, southeast and southwest of it. There is an extraordinary likeness with the Greek, fundamentally Anatolian town-arranging. The Fortress divider in the prior periods incorporated just the Three slopes and just in the second 50% of the II century, amid the rule of Emperor Marcus Aurelius, the city in the plain was additionally encased. Philippopolis is the main antiquated city in Bulgarian grounds, whose entire road organize has been cleared up gratitude to the archeological unearthings in ongoing decades. 

Its domain was at long last arranged in II century on the rule of the symmetrical (rectangular or the purported Hippodamian) framework with avenues situated to the four cardinal focuses, with a deviation of 16° toward the upper east southwest, as per the fundamental for the territory northwest breezes. They were cleared with vast syenite pieces with various geometric shapes, limited on the two sides by controls and fitted with water supply system and strong sewerage. 

The two fundamental avenues, the establishment of the Roman town-arranging – Decumanus Maximus and Cardo Maximus, converge at the discussion and split the level city into four a balance of. The avenues diagram the areas (insulas), which are rectangular and possess diverse regions as per the inbuilt real open or private structures which are of three kinds. 

The first is the alleged square sort with a zone of around 200 sq. km., which had a place with individuals with constrained monetary assets. The second sort is with unmistakable private agent and business-high quality center. The third kind are the most delegate homes, the purported living arrangements with modern, private and business territory. 

A critical component in the arrangement of the old city was the format of the focal urban center (public square – discussion), which concurs with the focal point of the cutting edge city. The genuine square – the Areya, has the state of a square shape with measurements 113,60 to 99,40 m. The various shops demonstrate that at first the public square had a business nature. Later it was reproduced a few times and numerous statues of noticeable identities showed up on her. It stopped to exist amidst V century after the enormous Huns attacks. 

North of it along the Agora-Stadium-Amphitheater hub are arranged the grand open structures – the thermae under the building Balkan and inn Bulgaria, which awe with its noteworthy volumes, mosaic covers and claddings. Close-by is the Odeon (the Small theater). It is expected this was the working of fortunes. These structures are joined by little squares and slim corridors. 

The outfit closes north of the arena, situated between Sahat Tepe and the Three Hills. This noteworthy building was worked amid the rule of Emperor Marcus Aurelius and could situate around 30,000 individuals. 

Toward the start of II century in the city seems critical new emphasize – the venue situated over the south passageway of the contemporary passage. In this is accomplished an unbelievable solidarity of scenes and design. Found by Plovdiv archeologists and revamped in the mid 80-ies of XX century, the Ancient Theater is among the most noteworthy of the Roman Empire. 

The wonderfulness of Philippopolis inspired a large number of the old creators. The most celebrated portrayal is of the antiquated Greek author of II century Lucian of Samosata, who knew with incredible subtleties the life in Philippopolis and is the main old essayist whose observer account stayed until today. Here are a portion of his exchanges: 

"Heracles: 

Hermes and Philosophy, two mountains – the biggest and most wonderful of the considerable number of mountains (the more noteworthy is Hemus and against it is the Rhodope), the fruitful field lying between them that begins of their lower regions and the three quite rising slopes found flawlessly, which are a long way from vague in its unpleasantness and appear various fortresses of the lying underneath them city. Since we see the town itself. 

Hermes: 

I vow to Zeus, Heracles, the biggest and the most delightful city. Genuinely, its magnificence sparkles from faraway. What's more, an extraordinary waterway passes it by contacting it intently. 

Heracles: 

That is Hebros and the town is a work of the popular Philip ..." 

Amidst the III century Philipopol experienced one of the best disasters in its history. Gothic clans crossed the Danube in year 250, they attacked, vanquished and totally decimated the city in which, as per the student of history Ammianus Marcellinus they slaughtered 100,000 individuals. The archeological unearthings bear witness to the inconceivable enduring with a thick layer of consumed flotsam and jetsam. 

Philippopolis recoverer and rose from the fiery debris and the development of open structures proceeded in the period IV-VI century. The vast majority of them are identified with the spread of Christianity. The start of the Christian lecturing here is set 30 years AD by Apostle Hermas – one of the 70 witnesses of the Christ, who made the main Christian people group in the city. He was a follower of the Apostle Paul and was sent by him in Thrace with an evangelistic mission. He was chosen as the principal cleric of the Diocese of Plovdiv and headed the congregation zone to year 54. Amid the continuous Balkans mistreatment of Christians by the Roman power toward the finish of I century he acknowledged affliction and was consecrated as a Saint by the congregation. 

Toward the finish of Emperor Diocletian's rule (284-305) Plovdiv territory turned into the scene of heightened oppression against Christians. The 38 Plovdiv saints, who were pointed at the eastern entryway of the acropolis of Philippopolis are well-known– the present Hisar Kapia. They were tormented, however did not surrender their confidence. 

After the official acknowledgment of Christianity by Emperor Constantine the Great in 313 AD a different circuit was made known as the Diocese of Philippopolis. 

The most huge of the new open structures in IV century is the early Christian basilica committed to the Apostle Paul, who has been very venerated in Plovdiv for quite a long time. It is situated in the braced town close to the present "St. Ludwig" Catholic Church. It inspires with its compositional structure and rich inside enhancement, and as per its size and volume it is the biggest basilica in this period in the Bulgarian grounds equivalent just with the most delegate Episcopal basilicas and church buildings of the Byzantine Empire. 

An old synagogue was found close to the Basilica of Philippopolis. The supplication corridor is secured with a mosaic floor. A seven-stretched candle holder (a menorah) is delineated in the center board. This is the main archeologically authenticated antiquated synagogue in Bulgarian terrains – proof for a deluge of outsiders from the East, for the most part well off traders and craftsmans. 

The Small Basilica of Philippopolis was situated on the eastern edges of the antiquated city, near the internal substance of the château divider with pinnacle from II – IV century. The congregation was close to the eastern necropolis of the city and the martirion of the 37 Philippopolis saints headed for Constantinople. The basilica was worked in the second 50% of the V century. 

Two colossal reservoir conduits were additionally worked amid this period, which rehashed more established courses and furnished the number of inhabitants in Philippopolis with clean drinking water from the Rhodopes. The late classical private working of Eirene in Plovdiv is additionally from that time. It is conceivable that Christian customs may have been performed there and the house has turned out to be one of the alleged "house chapels". 

Medieval times: 

After the split of the Roman Empire toward the finish of IV century, the terrains of Plovdiv district stayed in its eastern part – Byzantium. For over three centuries Philippopolis had been the primary town of the area of Thraceand a critical fortress headed straight toward nonstop attacks of the Barbarians south of the Danube. The Slavic intrusions turned out to be most critical and they constrained Emperor Justinian the Great (527-565) to reconstruct 35 of the influenced posts in the Upper-Thracian Valley. The stronghold of Philippopolis was likewise reestablished, where the adjustments in blended development (Opus mixtum) portrayed by exchanging layers of stones and blocks can at present be seen. In 584, Avars and Slavs made an unsuccessful endeavor to overcome Philippopolis, yet their first settlement in Thrace had just been seen. Amid the rule of Emperor Heraclius (610-641) the Slavs attacked the Balkan areas of Byzantium. There is no data which Slavic clans settled in the area of Plovdiv. Be that as it may, in the religious legend there is proof for the settlement of part of the Dragovites clan south of Philippopolis and on the northern inclines of the Rhodopes. In the Diocese of Philippopolis, after the Slavs received Christianity, a different ministerial office called Dragovitian was assigned. 

The job of Philippopolis as an essential fortification against the savage intrusions expanded. Toward the start of VII century an outer post divider was worked to secure the lower regions of the Three slopes from east and south. After the consideration of the district of Zagorje to Bulgaria, amid the rule of Khan Tervel (701-718), Plovdiv area turned into a field of the deep rooted struggle among Byzantium and the medieval Bulgarian state. 

Amidst the VIII century, Emperor Constantine V Copronymus, so as to reinforce the military power in Thrace, moved to the region of Philippopolis homesteaders from Armenia and Syria. They were apostates, devotees of Manichaeism and the Paulicians. This reinforced the military protection of Thrace, yet profoundly disturbed the Orthodox Christian harmony for quite a long time. 

The Byzantine recorders take note of the principal victory of Philippopolis and the territory of Khan Krum in 812. Threatened by the triumphs of the Bulgarian ruler, the Byzantine populace left Philippopolis and other real urban communities in Thrace. After the Byzantines damaged the agreement finished up with Khan Omurtag, his child Khan Malamir (around 831-836) attacked Thrace, vanquished and forever included Plovdiv in his properties. Solid proof for this is the engraving known as the "Archives of Khan Malamir": 

"… My dad, the ruler Omurtag, made a thirty-year harmony and lived well with the Greeks… I as well, lived well with them first and foremost, however the Greeks crushed our territories. The ruler Malamir, who ruled together with the kavhan Isbul, challenged the Greeks with his military and crushed the fortification Provat, the stronghold Skutarion, the post Burdizo and the grounds of the Greeks, battled with them and finished a wide range of adventures and went to Philippopolis and the Greeks fled… " 

Along these lines with the takeoff of the Greek battalion the slaughter and the decimation of the city were dodged. At the archeological unearthings at the Citadel of Nebet Tepe are discovered regular objects of the Proto-Bulgarians from the center of IX century. Specialists concur that Plovdiv and the district remained some portion of Bulgaria until the second 50% of X century. After the arrangement of the autocephalous Bulgarian church, one of its seven Dioceses focus was Plovdiv. 

Amid the rule of Tsar Peter, vigorously impacted by the apostasies in the district of Plovdiv – Paulicians and Manichaeism, the Bulgarians additionally made their shocking principle known as Bogomilism. 

The reports of Plovdiv in the coming decades are rare. Toward the finish of the rule of Tsar Peter a military clash with Byzantium broke which proceeded into his successor's Boris II, rule as well. Unfortunate for the zone has all the earmarks of being the intercession of the Russian Prince Sviatoslav, who vanquished Plovdiv in his second undertaking south of the Balkan Mountains with a multitude of thirty thousand and exposed it to devastation and looting. The writer Leo the Deacon wrote in his "History": 

"The story goes that after he vanquished Philippopolis, he merciless and cruelly pierced twenty thousand of the caught individuals in the city. Along these lines he panicked the majority of his rivals and curbed them. To the Roman emissaries he answered gladly and unhesitatingly that he won't leave this rich land, on the off chance that they don't pay a great deal of gifts and don't reclaim the urban communities and the prisoners that he prevailed. If the Romans did not have any desire to pay that, they should leave Europe that does not have a place with them and to move to Asia". 

In the following year – 971, Emperor John Tzimisces consented to Byzantium the East Bulgarian grounds together with Plovdiv as a different point (space) with the name Philippopolis. It turned into a leave army installation for the battles of Basil II against the Western Bulgarian territory of Tsar Samuil. As indicated by the legend, some portion of Samuel's blinded troopers were settled after 1018 in the zone of the set up Belashtitsa Monastery St. George, ten kilometers south of Plovdiv. The rich Plovdiv locale was given as a reward to Byzantine administrator Nikephoros Skiffy that conveys the conclusive hit to the back at the thrashing of Samuil's military. 

In 1083 one of the conspicuous Byzantine officers Gregory Pakourianos – "sebast and extraordinary household of the West", established the St. Mary Bachkovo religious community, which assumed a significant job on the Christian populace in the district in the next hundreds of years. 

The finish of the XI century was set apart by the mass uprising of the Paulicians in Plovdiv. Driven by Travel, they strengthened in the post Belyatovo north of Plovdiv and thus completed strikes against the area town. Against them the Emperor Alexius I Comnenus raised new stronghold that bears his name – Aleksiopol, close to the present town of Rakovsky. 

In the fight against the revolutionaries of Travel was murdered Gregory Pakourianos. 

Alexios I Komnenos picked Philipopol for his base to battle the Pavlikyan from. These occasions were portrayed by his little girl, Anna Comnena, in the renowned "Alexiad" – memoirs of Alexios I. It is because of her that we presently have the most established medieval portrayal of the city and the district. The Byzantine author Theodore Prodromos later composed: 

"I truly appreciate and wonder about not just your Rodopi and the streams springing there, your urban communities, your Diocese and the entire district that you depict, not just due to their pleasant area or on account of the smooth stream of the Hebros River or in light of the lovely buildings..." 

On account of the Latin knights we have the most fascinating data about the historical backdrop of Plovdiv and the district in the time of the Crusades. They travel along the popular street Via Militaris corner to corner that crosses the landmass from Belgrade to Constantinople. 

In 1096 the First Crusaders went through here and noted Plovdiv among the most extravagant Byzantine towns "overflowing with bread and wine and all sort of nourishment". In 1149 the knights of the Second Crusade revealed of an area settled with shippers from France, Germany, Lombardy and others, framing their very own commercial center in the city. A standout amongst the most noticeable members in the walk kicked the bucket in Plovdiv – the Atrebates religious administrator Alviz and his grave in the churchyard of St. George wound up acclaimed for wonders and healings. In 1189 through here passed the militaries of the Third Crusade and vanquished Plovdiv. 

In 1204 the Crusaders of the Fourth Crusade caught Constantinople and built up their Latin Empire on the region of the European assets of the Byzantine Empire. The Plovdiv district was given to the Flanders knight Renee de Trois, which made Plovdiv Duchy. On April 14, 1205 at the Battle of Adrianople the Latins endured a devastating thrashing by the Bulgarian armed force, driven by Tsar Kaloyan. Bolstered by the Bulgarian populace and the Plovdiv Paulicians, Kaloyan vanquished Plovdiv, barbarously wrangled with the deceptive Greek leaders of the city and joined the Plovdiv district to his nation. 

In 1208 in the conclusive fight north of Plovdiv the Latins vanquished the Bulgarian armed force of Tsar Boril and incorporated the zone again as a feature of the Latin Empire. Simply after the Battle of Klokotnitsa in 1230 Tsar Ivan Asen II rejoined Plovdiv district to the Bulgarian domain. A proof is the Krichim engraving: "On this stone sat Tsar Asen, when he vanquished Krichim" and the Stanimaka engraving: "In the year 1231, indiction IV, from God raised Tsar Asen, Tsar of Bulgarians, Greeks and different nations put Aleksey Sevast and construct this post." That is about the reclamation of the Asen's stronghold as a component of the fortress framework along the northern inclines of the Rhodopes. 

Amid the Middle Ages the leaders of the city changed multiple times, pretty much every time by flame and sword. 

Under Ottoman principle 

Plovdiv area was vanquished after the triumph of the Turks at Chernomen close Adrianople in 1371. After a furious obstruction Plovdiv offered up to Lala Şahin Pasha. To evade gore and the annihilation of the city, the Bulgarian battalion pulled back and the keys to the fortification were given over to the Bishop of Plovdiv. Plovdiv, with another name as of now – Filibe, turned into a focal point of the vilayet and together with the region was pronounced Sultan hass – individual ownership of the Sultan. In the conflict in early XV century the city was decimated and the vast majority of its occupants were slaughtered and exchanged into bondage. 

The rule of Sultan Murad II (1421 – 1451) set up the Ottoman urban sort. In Plovdiv, in the place of a Christian church was manufactured Ulu Dzhumaya Mosque (primary, Friday), known by the name of the ruler likewise as Muradiye. Over the vestiges of an old religious community close Maritsa was fabricated the acclaimed Imaret Mosque. Another scaffold over Maritsa was likewise fabricated, the primary shopping road Uzun bazaar was framed, around which the hotels Kurshum Khan, Gavaz Khan, Fair Khan, Karaul Khan, the secured market Bezistena, the enormous showers Tahtakalenska, Chivte and Hyunkyarhamam were assembled later. 

The minarets of many mosques at last changed the presence of the city, which voyagers had just begun calling "one of the gems of the Ottoman Empire". Evliya Çelebi in 1651 characterized the city as "the most delightful of the considerable number of urban areas in European Turkey." 

Shopping stores began developing in the city, which shaped an entire commercial center for grain named Brass outbuilding/Pirinch hambar/(rice distribution centers). 

In Plovdiv built up a particular ethnic model where Bulgarians, Greeks, Turks, Armenians and Jews, who settled there after their removal from Spain in the XVI century, lived respectively, created and exchanged with one another. On account of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the conventions of the Middle Ages, the Greeks assumed a main job among the Christians in the city. They immersed the discount exchange and usury and transformed Plovdiv into a standout amongst the most imperative focuses of Hellenism in Thrace. So by the start of XIX century, a procedure of an expanded Hellenization of the Bulgarians had started. In Plovdiv and its north locale, countless stayed as an indigenous populace who were naturalized as Bulgarians amid that period, and before XVII century's over had received the Catholic religion. Along these lines Catholic populace zones were shaped in Plovdiv as well as around the present-day settlements of Rakovski and Kaloyanovo. 

In XVIII century Plovdiv started to shape as the focal point of a select financial territory dependent on sheep rearing in bumpy zones. Bulgarians from Srednogorie involved the main positions in the sheep exchange (dzheleptchiystvo – clearance of cows for meat) and the gathering of the sheep tithe (beglik) and provided the focal point of the Empire – Constantinople with sheep meat. Immense amounts of fleece were created, which was handled in mountain towns in a dispersed manufactories and on this premise the generation of woolen material (aba) 

turned into the most imperative art in Plovdiv. Plovdiv tailors (abadzhia) offered their merchandise in Istanbul, Bursa, Izmir, Diyarbakir, Aleppo, Damascus, and Calcutta. The city turned into the biggest business and artworks focus in the Bulgarian terrains. Plovdiv business houses had workplaces in Istanbul, Vienna and Manchester. In 1845 the organization of Gyumyushgerdan set up the primary material processing plant in Thrace in the town of Dermendere (Parvenets).

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