Capital of Roman Thrace
Philippopolis was the province's centre.
Gitanes232 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Gitanes232 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Gitanes232 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Gitanes232 — CC BY-SA 4.0
The remains of a Roman aqueduct that carried water to the city of Philippopolis — today's Plovdiv — over a distance exceeding twenty kilometres from springs in the Rhodope mountains. What survives is scattered: stone arches in places, buried channels, and ceramic piping. The clearest section stands west of the city with successive arches you can walk beneath. Philippopolis's water system was larger than the city's size suggests, an indicator of its importance: it was the capital of the Roman province of Thrace, with a theatre, a stadium, baths and a forum — and the baths alone consumed enormous quantities of water. This is the difference between the Roman city and what preceded it: infrastructure. The aqueduct, the drainage and the paved streets are what made cities of this size possible at all. The remains are open-air and unmanaged as a tourist site, and free to see.
Philippopolis was the province's centre.
Bath consumption alone explains the system's scale.
The aqueduct and drainage made the city possible.
West of central Plovdiv, near Komatevo
The Roman and Greek name for Plovdiv, going back to Philip II of Macedon, Alexander's father, who took the city in 342 BC and named it after himself. But the city is far older: the hills it was built on have been inhabited since the sixth millennium BC, making Plovdiv one of Europe's oldest continuously inhabited cities — older than Rome and Athens. It carried several names through its history: Eumolpias, Pulpudeva, and Filibe under the Ottomans.
The Roman theatre is the best known — a second-century AD amphitheatre preserved to an exceptional degree and still hosting performances today, seating about five thousand. The Roman stadium lies under the main street, part of it visible from street level and the rest buried beneath the modern city. And the forum stands near the post office. All are central and walkable in half a day.
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