Old City of Plovdiv, Bulgaria

The medieval Bulgarian city of Paldin was captured by the Ottomans in 1364 and then received the name of Filibe. The current name of Plovdiv only emerged in the 15th century. The population of this trading city consisted mainly of Bulgarians, Turks, Greeks, Armenians and Jews. Under Ottoman rule, which lasted until the emancipation of Bulgaria in 1878, the city became a centre of the Bulgarian nationalist movement in the 19th century.

Old city of Plovdiv, colour photograph, 2007, photographer: Nikola Gruev; image source: Wikimedia Commons, http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:OldcityPlovdivNicolaGruev.JPG, Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 Unported.