Plovdiv 40,000 objects. The Museum of Natural Science was inaugurated in 1955 in the old edifice of the Plovdiv Municipality built in 1880. It is among the most important museums in the country with rich collections in its Paleontology, Mineralogy, and Botanic sections. There are several rooms for wildlife and it contains Bulgaria's largest freshwater aquarium with 40 fish species. It has a collection of minerals from the Rhodope mountains. The Museum of Aviation was established on 21 September 1991 on the territory of the Krumovo airbase to the southeast of the city. The museum possesses 59 aircraft and indoor and
Plovdiv institution outside the United States, the American College of Sofia, was founded in Plovdiv in 1860 and later moved to Sofia. On 5 September 2014, Plovdiv was selected as the Bulgarian host of the European Capital of Culture 2019. This happened with the help of the Municipal Foundation "Plovdiv 2019″, a non-government organization, which was established in 2011 by Plovdiv's City Council whose main objectives were to develop and to prepare Plovdiv's bid book for European Capital of Culture in 2019. Plovdiv was given various names throughout its long history. The Odrysian capital "Odryssa" () is suggested to have been