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
Plovdiv is the second or the third-largest cosmopolitan city inhabited by Bulgarians, after Sofia and possibly Varna. According to the 2001 census, out of a population of 338,224 inhabitants, the Bulgarians numbered 302,858 (90%). Stolipinovo in Plovdiv is the largest Roma neighbourhood in the Balkans, having a population of around 20,000 alone; further Roma ghettos are Hadji Hassan Mahala and Sheker Mahala. Therefore, the census number is a deflation of the number of Roma people, and they are most likely the second-largest group after the Bulgarians, most of all because the Muslim Roma in Plovdiv claim to be of Turkish ethnicity