Bulgaria is home to Plovdiv, one of Europe’s oldest continuously inhabited cities.
Archaeological evidence places settled life at Plovdiv back to around 6000 BC, during the Neolithic period. The city grew around the strategic hills beside the Maritsa River, a location that helped make it an important settlement and crossroads for successive civilizations.
The ancient Thracian settlement was later conquered by Philip II of Macedon in 342 BC and renamed Philippopolis, or “city of Philip.” Under Roman rule it became Trimontium, meaning “Three Hills,” and developed public buildings, baths, roads, water systems and a theatre. The Via Militaris, a major Roman route across the Balkans, passed through the city.
Plovdiv’s long history also includes Byzantine, Bulgarian and Ottoman periods. Its present name reflects the accumulated changes of those eras. The city’s continuous settlement claim refers to archaeological evidence of an enduring inhabited site, not an uninterrupted survival of one political state or culture.