Roman Forum (Plovdiv) Roman Forum (Plovdiv) The Roman forum of Philippopolis (; , "Rimski forum na Plovdiv") is a rectangular forum (plaza) surrounded by the ruins of several ancient administrative buildings at the center of the city of Plovdiv. It was the center of public, administrative, commercial and religious life in the ancient city. Meetings, discussions, celebrations and state events were held there. The forum covers an area of 20 ha (11 ha revealed) which makes it the largest of its kind in Bulgaria. The ancient city center was built in the 1st century AD during the reign of Emperor Vespasian when ancient
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