Three days in Plovdiv: older than Rome, and in no hurry about it

Two nights on the hills, one full day out to a monastery and a cliff fortress in the Rhodopes.

Copy this itinerary
Length
3 days, 2 nights
Where you stay
Plovdiv
Places
7 across 3 days
OpenFreeMap © OpenMapTiles Data from OpenStreetMap

The city was built on six steep hills above the Maritsa, and the old town sits on three of them: cobbled, vertical, and lined with the painted timber houses that Bulgarian merchants put up in the 19th century when the Ottoman empire was loosening its grip.

Underneath all of that is Philippopolis. A landslide in the 1970s uncovered a Roman theatre that had been sitting under the hillside for centuries and is now used for opera in summer. The stadium runs beneath the main pedestrian street and you can see one curved end of it through a hole in the pavement, still with the starting line in place.

The word you will hear is aylyak. It roughly means unhurried, and locals use it about themselves as a compliment. Plovdiv is a city that does very little quickly, which after Sofia is exactly the right change of pace, and two nights is enough to catch it.

Highlights

  • A Roman theatre uncovered by a landslide and still used for performances
  • One end of a Roman stadium, sunk beneath the pavement of the main pedestrian street
  • Revival houses in ox blood and ochre, hanging over cobbled lanes on the old town hills
  • Bachkovo, a monastery founded in 1083 and the second largest in Bulgaria
  • Asen's fortress on a rock spur, with a church that has stood there since the 1200s

Where to stay

Plovdiv, two nights

Stay in or just below the old town, or in Kapana, the small grid of craft workshops and bars down towards the river. Both put everything within a ten minute walk.

Rooms in the old town are often in restored revival houses and are still inexpensive, though the ones actually on the cobbles mean carrying a bag uphill.

Day by day

Day 1 in Plovdiv

Up through the Roman city into the old town

The walk from the modern centre into the old town climbs through about two thousand years in half a kilometre, and doing it in that order is the whole trick.

Start on the main pedestrian street at the sunken end of the Roman stadium, where a curved bank of marble seating for thirty thousand people sits three metres below the shops. Two minutes further on is a 14th century Ottoman mosque, still in use, with a tea shop next door that has been selling the same thick sweet drink for decades.

Then climb. The theatre is near the top of the hill, cut into the slope so that the stage looks out over the plain to the Rhodope mountains behind it, and late afternoon is when the stone goes gold.

  1. 14:00

    Roman Stadium

    Visit

    The curved end of a stadium from the early 2nd century, exposed under the pedestrian street with the starting line still visible. Free, permanently open, and easy to walk past without noticing.

  2. 15:00

    Dzhumaya Mosque

    Religious

    One of the oldest Ottoman mosques in the Balkans, in the middle of the shopping street, with a striped minaret and a painted interior. Take your shoes off and go in; it is still a working mosque.

  3. 16:45

    Roman Theatre

    Culture

    A Roman theatre buried by a landslide and dug out in the 1970s, restored and used for opera and concerts through the summer. Go late in the day for the light and the view south to the Rhodopes.

  4. 19:30

    White Spider Pub

    Eat

    Dinner underground in cellars that have been serving food for over a century. Bulgarian, generous and cheap.

With more time: Kapana, the block of lanes between the mosque and the river, was a craft quarter and is now where the bars are. Everything in it is within two streets of everything else.

Day 2 in Plovdiv

South into the Rhodopes: a monastery and a fortress on a rock

Half an hour south the plain stops and the Rhodope mountains start, and the road up the Chepelare valley has the two best things near Plovdiv on it.

Bachkovo was founded in 1083 by two Georgian brothers in Byzantine service and is the second largest monastery in Bulgaria. The courtyard is a working one, with a refectory covered in 17th century painting and a queue of Bulgarians waiting to kiss an icon that is supposed to be miraculous.

Asen's fortress is ten minutes back down the road: a rock spur above the river with a 13th century church standing on the end of it, reached by a set of steps that will make you take the last stretch slowly.

Buses to Asenovgrad go from the Rhodope bus station in Plovdiv and are frequent; from there the monastery is a short local hop or a cheap taxi.

  1. 10:00

    Bachkovo Monastery

    Religious

    Founded in 1083, burned by the Ottomans and rebuilt, with a painted refectory, an outdoor fresco of the Last Judgement and a much venerated icon of the Virgin. Cover shoulders and knees.

  2. 13:00

    Lunch by the river

    Eat

    There are grills along the road between the monastery and Asenovgrad, most of them with tables over the water. Trout is the thing to order.

  3. 14:30

    Asen's Fortress

    Historic

    A medieval fortress on a ridge above the Asenitsa gorge, strengthened in 1231 according to an inscription cut into the rock. Most of it is ruin; the church on the point is intact and the view down the valley is the reason to climb.

With more time: There is a path from Bachkovo up to a hermitage chapel above the monastery, an hour there and back through the woods, and almost nobody on it.

Day 3 in Plovdiv

Mosaics and a merchant's house

Two buildings, two very different centuries, and both a short walk from the bottom of the old town.

The bishop's basilica was excavated over decades and finally opened to the public in 2021, under a modern shelter that lets you walk on glass over about two thousand square metres of late Roman floor mosaic. The birds in it are the part people photograph.

Then up the hill to one of the great revival houses, built in the 1840s by a merchant who wanted everybody to know how well the trade in Anatolian wool had gone.

  1. 09:30

    Bishop's Basilica of Philippopolis

    Religious

    Late Roman floor mosaics on an enormous scale, opened in 2021 under a purpose built shelter with raised walkways over them. Allow an hour; the bird panels alone are worth half of it.

  2. 11:15

    Plovdiv Regional Ethnographic Museum

    Culture

    A merchant's house from the 1840s, bay windowed and painted inside and out, holding costume, copperware and instruments. The building is at least half the exhibit.

With more time: If the train is not until the afternoon, the smaller basilica ten minutes west has 5th century mosaic floors and a fraction of the visitors, and the archaeology collection near it holds the Thracian gold.

Before you go

Getting in

Around fifteen trains a day run between Sofia and Plovdiv, taking anywhere from 2 to 4 hours depending on whether you get a fast one. Buses are more frequent and take about 2 hours consistently, which for this route is the better bet.

Plovdiv has a small airport with a handful of low cost routes and a bus into town after each flight, but most people arrive from Sofia. There is also a sleeper running Sofia to Plovdiv and on to Istanbul overnight.

Getting around

The centre is a long pedestrian street with the old town rising off one end of it, and you will walk all of it. The cobbles up in the old town are steep, rounded and slippery in rain.

Taxis are cheap enough that four people should just take one. Order by phone or app rather than taking a car already waiting at a rank, where the fare can be several times what it should be. Check the per kilometre rate stuck to the window.

When to go

May, June and September. The Thracian plain is hot and airless in July and August, and the old town has no shade to speak of once you are on the cobbles.

Plovdiv was European Capital of Culture in 2019 and kept the programming: there is usually something on in the Roman theatre through the summer evenings, which is the single best way to see it.

Plovdiv is what happens when a city is old enough to stop trying. Nothing here is presented at you: the stadium is under a shopping street, the theatre was found by accident, and the old town is full of people going home with the shopping.

Two nights, one day in the mountains, and copy the locals by doing rather less than you planned.

Or make it a longer trip

These trips pass through here on the way somewhere else.

Make it your trip

Every stop, day and place here lands in your account as an editable trip. Move the days around, swap a city, add your own bookings and costs, and share it with whoever is coming.

Copy to my trips

Common questions

Plovdiv or Sofia?
Both, and in that order if you can. Sofia has the museums, the monastery day trip and the airport; Plovdiv is the better looking city and the more pleasant one to sit still in. They are two hours apart by bus, so choosing between them is rarely necessary.
How do I get to Bachkovo monastery?
Buses to Asenovgrad leave the Rhodope bus station in Plovdiv frequently and take about 30 minutes, and local buses or a cheap taxi cover the last stretch to the monastery. Doing the fortress on the way back works better than the other way round, because the monastery is quieter early.
Is two nights enough?
Yes, for the city and one day trip. A third night would let you add the smaller Roman sites and the Thracian gold in the archaeology museum without rushing the last morning, but nothing here demands it.
Can I see a performance in the Roman theatre?
In summer, usually. The theatre hosts opera, concerts and festival events through the warm months, tickets are cheap by any European standard, and sitting on two thousand year old stone watching something staged is a considerably better experience than paying to walk around it in the afternoon.