Plovdiv Period of National Revival, a number of notable icon-painters (called in Bulgarian "zografi", "зографи") from all regions of the country worked in Plovdiv such as Dimitar Zograf, his son Zafir Zograf, Zahari Zograf, Georgi Danchov, and others. After the Liberation, the Bulgarian painter of Czech origin Ivan Mrkvička came to work in the city. The Painters' Society was established there by artists from southern Bulgaria in 1912 whose members included painters Zlatyu Boyadzhiev, Tsanko Lavrenov and Sirak Skitnik. Today the city has more than 40 art galleries with most of them being privately owned. The Art Gallery of Plovdiv was
Church of the Holy Mother of God, Plovdiv 10 January 1860 the bishop of Plovdiv Paisius held a service in Bulgarian language and publicly announced that his congregation denounced the Greek Patriarch of Istanbul which became a great scandal and Plovdiv became the most radical center for the struggle of the autonomy of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. On 30 April Paisius organized a Church and People's counsel in which the citizens were also represented in order to discuss the church question. Plovdiv sent a delegation to the Ottoman government asking officially for an autonomous Church. That Counsel was held annually until 1870 when the Bulgarian Exarchate was recognized