roman theater

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This post is about a visit at the Theater Of Philippopolis. I am absolutely in awe of the structures and how well they have been preserved.

One thing Plovdiv seemed to do really well was the use of tunnels: there quite a few of them going through the hills that the city sat on. This meant that much of the historical old parts of Plovdiv were rather quiet, with the traffic of 600,000 inhabitants roaring through the earth down below.

the dark church

I walked around on one of the hills on top of one of the tunnels until I arrived at the Church of the Holy Mother of God. Interestingly, this church dated from 1844, when Bulgaria was still firmly under Ottoman rule. It even predated the founding of the autonomous province of Eastern Rumelia in 1876.

It was a pretty dark church: dim colors, lots of gold, lots of icons. When two old ladies appeared and scolded me for taking pictures, I decided that I didn’t want to stay.

the theater, my god, the theater

I walked over to the Theater Of Philippopolis. When I arrived it blew me away.

Just like the Forum the Theater dated from the 1st century. And just like the Terracotta Army and the Thracian Tomb of Aleksandrovo it had been discovered by accident just a few decades earlier. It was very large and very well-restored. The stage, the seats, the backstage area – most of it was there, and it felt almost as if the shows had happened yesterday and not almost two thousand years ago.

I stayed for a few hours, watching the sun play with the shadows on the stage and on the seats. One thing I found a bit odd was that the seats were oriented toward the south, which seemed to mean that the audience would be blinded by the sun in the morning and in the afternoon. Or was I missing something?

pictures

A tunnel in Plovdiv:

Church of the Holy Mother of God:

Inside the Church of the Holy Mother of God:

Icon in the Church of the Holy Mother of God:

The Theater Of Philippopolis:

Side view of the Theater Of Philippopolis:

Visitors in the Theater Of Philippopolis:

Lone visitor in the Theater Of Philippopolis:

Room in the Boutique Hostel Old Plovdiv:

Common area (with cat) in the Boutique Hostel Old Plovdiv: