Roman Forum (Plovdiv)

Roman forum of Philippopolis
	Shown within Plovdiv City Center
Location	Plovdiv, Bulgaria
Coordinates	42°08′32″N24°45′03″E / 42.142112°N 24.750943°E
Type	Forum
Length	143 m
Width	136 m
Area	20 ha
History
Builder	Vespasian
Material	bricks, marble, stone
Founded	1st century AD
Abandoned	5th century AD
Periods	Roman Empire
Site notes
Excavation dates	1971
Public access	Yes

Last updated February 19, 2019

Coordinates: 42°08′32″N24°45′03″E / 42.142112°N 24.750943°E / 42.142112; 24.750943

Geographic coordinate system Coordinate system

A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are often chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position and two or three of the numbers represent a horizontal position; alternatively, a geographic position may be expressed in a combined three-dimensional Cartesian vector. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation. To specify a location on a plane requires a map projection.

The Roman forum of Philippopolis (Latin : Forum Romanum; Bulgarian : Римски форум на Пловдив, 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.

Plovdiv is the second-largest city in Bulgaria, with a city population of 345,213 as of 2017 and 675,000 in the greater metropolitan area. It is an important economic, transport, cultural, and educational center. There is evidence of habitation in Plovdiv dating back to the 6th millennium BCE, when the first Neolithic settlements were established; it is said to be one of the oldest cities in Europe.

Bulgarian, is an Indo-European language and a member of the Southern branch of the Slavic language family.

A forum was a public square in a Roman municipium, or any civitas, reserved primarily for the vending of goods; i.e., a marketplace, along with the buildings used for shops and the stoas used for open stalls. Many fora were constructed at remote locations along a road by the magistrate responsible for the road, in which case the forum was the only settlement at the site and had its own name, such as Forum Popili or Forum Livi.

The forum covers an area of 20 ha (11 ha revealed) which makes it the largest of its kind in Bulgaria.^[1] The ancient city center was built in the 1st century AD during the reign of Emperor Vespasian when ancient Philippopolis obtained a new city planning scheme and a center (forum) according to a Roman model. The main streets of the city (cardo maximus and decumanus maximus) intersect outside the eastern entrance of the complex. A complex of public buildings was built to the North, including the Odeon, the city library, the building of the treasury.

Vespasian was Roman emperor from 69–79, the fourth, and last, in the Year of the Four Emperors. He founded the Flavian dynasty that ruled the Empire for 27 years.

The forum of the ancient city and its main street (cardo maximus) are located at the very heart of Plovdiv's modern city center and main pedestrian area.

Location

The Roman forum of Plovdiv is located near General Gurko str. and the main pedestrian street of the city (Knyaz Alexander of Battenberg str.). The building of the central post office lies above the western part of the forum. The construction of Maria Luiza blvd. in the 1980s split the northern part of the forum from the rest.

The Forum

The forum has rectangular shape, close to the shape of a square, with dimensions: 143 m in north-southern direction and 136 m in east-western direction. A complex of public buildings was built to the North, dominating over the rest of the buildings at the square. Three entrances, situated along the axes of the eastern, southern and western edge, provide access to the streets, located at the sides of the Forum. The main streets cardo maximus and decumanus maximus intersect outside the eastern entrance of the complex.

It was used as a market thoroughfare where merchants and people from the city and the region gathered to exchange Thracian grain, wood and honey for fine pottery and bronze vessels brought as far as Italy.^[2] Stores and shops occupied the eastern, the southern and the western side of the forum and patrons entered them through narrow porticoes.

Four main construction phases can be distinguished in the historical layers of the Forum. They are different in terms of their level, architectural design and use of building materials.^[3]

The first construction phase marks the beginning of the complex development and bears the plan shape of the urban square. During the second construction phase the levels of the shops, the ambulation and the area were raised. Powerful crepido brings the stylobate of columns in Doric order, made of sandstone. The stone drainage leading rainwater away from the roof of the portico kept its original place. The ambulation was 11 m wide. The eastern, southern and western sides were formed by four-column Ionic propylaea. During the third construction phase the plastic decoration of the complex was replaced. The portico around the area is made of marble. The largest number of well-preserved original remains date back to the fourth and final construction phase. Over the existing crepido a new stylobate of syenite blocks was placed. It bore a marble arcade of free-standing columns in the Roman Corinthian order.

The public buildings for the needs of urban governance and other manifestations of urban life were situated in the northern part of the forum complex. Epigraphic documents recall for the existing of a Treasury. In the northeast corner an Odeon (Bouleuterion) is revealed and to the West of it - the city Library.

At the northern side of the complex some inscriptions, related to the religious and administrative life of the town were found, along with a piece of an invitation card for a performance of gladiator fights. In the area were found pedestals for statues, an exedra – a platform for speeches, and remains of an altar with inscriptions, dedicated to the goddesses Demeter and Kore (Persephone).

It went silent in the middle of the 5th Century when waves of Barbarians forced the people of Philippopolis to abandon the quarters in the plain and move to the acropolis.

Conservation and Restoration

The Forum of Philippopolis was discovered in 1971 during the construction of the central post office building in Plovdiv. The Eastern, the Northern and part of the Southern part of the ancient central square were revealed.

In 2012, excavation works began in the North-western part, revealing an area of 400 sq.m between the post office building and Tsar Siemon gardens.

Gallery

The Roman forum of Plovdiv, postcard from 1988
Panoramic view of cardo maximus and decumanus maximus
Panoramic view of the Northern part
The remains of the city library
The remains of the Northern part of the Forum
Cardo Maximvs (the main street with North-South direction)
Ancient street with East-West direction)
The North parg of the forum
The stylobate
The city library of Philippopolis
South-Eastern part of the forum, 1997
Discovering the western propylaea, 2014
Archeological works, 2014
Ancient shops near the western propylaea, 2014

Notes

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References

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[1] Ancient Roman Forum in Plovdiv

[2] Forum and Odeon

[Forum-3] Four construction phases of the Forum

Philippopolis
Part of a series on the ancient city of

Buildings and structures
Public • Theatre • Stadium • Forum • Odeon • Library Religious • Great Basilica • Small Basilica • Synagouge Fortification • Nebet Tepe • Hisar Kapia • Eastern gate Residential • Eirene Residence
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