Международен Телевизионен Фестивал „Златна Ракла“

The tradition & historical record

Plovdiv (Bulgarian: Пловдив, pronounced [ˈpɫɔvdif]) is the second-largest city in Bulgaria and the most populous city in the Bulgarian part of the historic region of Thrace, located 144 km (93 miles) southeast of the capital Sofia. It is considered the oldest European continually inhabited city, having been inhabited since c. 6,000 BCE. It had a population of 329,489 as of 2024 and 540,000 in its greater metropolitan area. An important economic, transport, cultural, and educational hub of Bulgaria, Plovdiv was the European Capital of Culture in 2019, and joined the UNESCO Global Network of Learning Cities in 2016. Plovdiv is in a fertile region of south-central Bulgaria on the two banks of the Maritsa River. The city has historically developed on seven syenite hills, some of which are 250 metres (820 feet) high. Because of these hills, Plovdiv is often referred to in Bulgaria as "The City of the Seven Hills". There is evidence of habitation in the area dating back to the 6th millennium BC, when the first Neolithic settlements were established. ¹

Plovdiv has been given various names throughout its long history. The Odrysian capital Odrysa (Ancient Greek: Οδρύσα), is suggested to have been modern Plovdiv by numismatic research or Odrin (Adrianople). The Greek historian Theopompus mentioned it in the 4th century BC as a town named Poneropolis (Ancient Greek: Πονηρόπολις) "town of villains") in pejorative relation to the conquest by king Philip II of Macedon who is said to have settled the town with 2,000 men who were false-accusers, sycophants, lawyers, and other possible disreputables. According to Plutarch, the town was named by this king after he had populated it with a crew of rogues and vagabonds, but this is possibly a folk name that did not actually exist. The names Dulon polis (Ancient Greek: Δουλωνπολις "slaves' town") and possibly Moichopolis (Ancient Greek: Μοιχοπολις "adulterer's town") likely have similar origins. The city has been called Philippopolis (Φιλιππόπολις) pronounced [pʰilipopolis]; Modern Greek: Φιλιππούπολη, romanized: Philippoupoli pronounced [filipupoli]) or "the city of Philip", from Ancient Greek: Φίλιππος, romanized: Philippos "horse-lover", most likely in honor of Philip II of Macedon after his death or in honor of Philip V, as this name was first mentioned in the 2nd century BC by Polybius in connection with the campaign of Philip V. Philippopolis was identified later by Plutarch and Pliny as the former Poneropolis. Strabo identified Philip II's settlement of most "evil, wicked" (Modern Greek: πονηροτάτους, romanized: ponerotatous ) as Cabyle (Kabyle), whereas Ptolemy considered the location of Poneropolis different from the rest. Kendrisia (Ancient Greek: Κενδρεισεία) was an old name of the city. ¹

The history of the region spans more than eight millennia. Numerous nations have left their traces on the twelve-metre-thick (39-foot) cultural layers of the city. The earliest signs of habitation in the territory of Plovdiv date as far back as the 6th millennium BC. Plovdiv has settlement traces including necropolises dating from the Neolithic era (roughly 6000–5000 BC) like the mounds Yasa Tepe 1 in the Philipovo district and Yasa Tepe 2 in Lauta park. Archaeologists have discovered fine pottery and objects of everyday life on Nebet Tepe from as early as the Chalcolithic era, showing that at the end of the 4th millennium BC, there was already an established settlement there which was continuously inhabited since then. Thracian necropolises dating back to the 2nd–3rd millennium BC have been discovered, while the Thracian town was established between the 2nd and the 1st millennium BC. The town was a fort of the independent local Thracian tribe Bessi. In 516 BC during the rule of Darius the Great, Thrace was included in the Persian Empire. In 492 BC, the Persian general Mardonius subjugated Thrace again, and it nominally became a vassal of Persia until 479 BC and the early rule of Xerxes I. The town became part of the Odrysian kingdom (460 BC – 46 AD), a Thracian tribal union. The town was conquered by Philip II of Macedon, and the Odrysian king was deposed in 342 BC. Ten years after the Macedonian invasion, the Thracian kings started to exercise power again after the Odrysian Seuthes III had re-established their kingdom under Macedonian suzerainty as a result of a successful revolt against Alexander the Great's rule resulting in a stalemate. ¹

The Slavs had fully settled in the area by the middle of the 6th century. This was done peacefully as there are no records for their attacks. With the establishment of Bulgaria in 681, Philippoupolis, the name of the city then, became an important border fortress of the Byzantine Empire. It was captured by Khan Krum in 812, but the region was fully incorporated into the Bulgarian Empire in 834 during the reign of Khan Malamir. It was reconquered by the Byzantine Empire in 855–856 for a short time until it was returned to Boris I of Bulgaria. From Philippopolis, the influence of dualistic doctrines spread to Bulgaria forming the basis of the Bogomil heresy. The city remained in Bulgarian hands until 970. However, the city is described at the time of Constantine VII in the 10th century as being within the Byzantine province (theme of Macedonia). Philippopolis was captured by the Byzantines in 969, shortly before it was sacked by the ruler of Rus' Sviatoslav I of Kiev who impaled 20,000 citizens. Before and after the Rus' massacre, the city was settled by Paulician heretics transported from Syria and Armenia to serve as military settlers on the European frontier with Bulgaria. Aime de Varennes in 1180 encountered the singing of Byzantine songs in the city that recounted the deeds of Alexander the Great and his predecessors over 1300 years before. Byzantine rule was interrupted by the Third Crusade (1189–1192) when the army of the Holy Roman emperor Frederick Barbarossa conquered Philippopolis. Ivanko was appointed as the governor of the Byzantine Theme of Philippopolis in 1196, but between 1198 and 1200 separated it from Byzantium in a union with Bulgaria. ¹

In 1364 the Ottoman Turks under Lala Shahin Pasha seized Plovdiv. According to other data, Plovdiv was not an Ottoman possession until the Battle of Maritsa in 1371, after which, the citizens and the Bulgarian army fled leaving the city without resistance. Refugees settled in Stanimaka. During the Ottoman Interregnum in 1410, Musa Çelebi conquered the city killing and displacing inhabitants. The city was the centre of the Rumelia Eyalet from 1364 until 1443, when it was replaced by Sofia as the capital of Rumelia. Plovdiv served as a sanjak centre within Rumelia between 1443 and 1593, the sanjak centre in Silistra Eyalet between 1593 and 1826, the sanjak centre in Eyalet of Adrianople between 1826 and 1867, and the sanjak centre of Edirne Vilayet between 1867 and 1878. ¹

Under the rule of the Ottoman Empire, Filibe (as the city was known at that time) was a focal poi… ¹

The text above is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Plovdiv”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence. ¹

Golden Chest International Television Festival is television festival in Bulgaria, according to the structured record cited below. This entry was generated automatically from that record and has not yet been reviewed by a person familiar with the tradition. ²

The source record links this tradition to 1 external register, which can be verified through the citation. ²