Plovdiv once-bright greens and blues. Torah scrolls are kept in the gilded Aron-ha-Kodesh. The Plovdiv Drama Theatre is a successor of the first professional theatre group in Bulgaria founded in 1881. The Plovdiv Puppet Theatre, founded in 1948, remains one of the leading institutions in this genre. The Plovdiv Opera was established in 1953. Another pillar of Plovdiv's culture is the Philharmonic, founded in 1945. Soloists such as Dmitri Shostakovich, Sviatoslav Richter, Mstislav Rostropovich, Yuri Boukov, and Mincho Minchev have worked with the Plovdiv Philharmonic. The orchestra has toured in almost all of the European countries. The Trakiya Folklore Ensemble, founded
Plovdiv It attracts more than 600,000 visitors from many countries. The city has had a duty-free zone since 1987. It has a customs terminal handling cargo from trucks and trains. Plovdiv's geographical position makes it an international transport hub. Three of the ten Pan-European corridors run into or near the city: Corridor IV (Dresden–Bucharest–Sofia-Plovdiv- Istanbul), Corridor VIII (Durrës-Sofia-Plovdiv-Varna/Burgas), and Corridor X (Salzburg–Belgrade-Plovdiv-Istanbul). A major tourist centre, Plovdiv lies at the foot of the Rhodope Mountains, and most people wishing to explore the mountains choose it as their trip's starting point. The city is a major road and railway hub in southern