Plovdiv, << PLAWV dihf >> (pop. 319,612), is Bulgaria’s second largest city. Only Sofia has more people. Plovdiv is an agricultural, industrial, and railroad center. It lies on the Maritsa River.
Plovdiv is Bulgaria’s chief marketing center for tobacco and perfume. It has leather, metal, and textile industries, and it processes farm products. Plovdiv holds a major international trade fair twice a year.
By the 400’s B.C., a Thracian town existed at what is now Plovdiv. Philip of Macedonia captured it in 341 B.C. From about the time of the birth of Christ until about A.D. 300, the town flourished as part of the Roman Empire. It later changed hands many times before the Ottoman Empire captured it in 1364. In 1878, Plovdiv became capital of Eastern Rumelia, a partly self-governing province in the Ottoman Empire. It united with the rest of Bulgaria in 1885.
