Ancient theatre in Plovdiv

The History of Ancient theater of Philippopolis and his 3D restoration

New discovery changes the Roman history of the city

Ancient theater - the pearl of the Old town of Plovdiv. As a difference to the unseen and destroyed artifacts from all of the epochs of human existence and civilizations in the heart of the old town of Plovdiv shines the only preserved, restored and functioning Аncient theater in Bulgaria. Today, 28.11,2016, the epigrafist Nikolay Sharankov read the inscription on the base of the statue in the Ancient Theatre, which changed the date of its construction whit nearly 30 years. Now the world learn that only 10 years after the building of the Coliseum (80 AD), on the ruins of an older construction in Philippopolis was build the Ancient theater (90 AD). at the dawn of the Rome emperor Domitian!..

In the summer of 1968 a bunch of kids playing outside in a field dug at random and found out the remains of an antique theatre. The archaeologist Lilia Botusharova began its excavation that continued until 1984. Despite the excellent restoration executed by architect Vera Kolarova, the data of the archaeological research have not been published. An irreversible damage was inflicted. Our research starts literally from the scratch.

Millions of steps and hundreds of years were required to leave these traces on the marble steps. What do we actually know of this architectural and artistic jewel of the Ancient Thrace, which has brought delight to its citizens for more than 400 years? Rome bears the legacy of the older cultures in its inheritance of the place, and in the theatre's architecture. It was indeed built in the year 117 AD, although it resembles Hellenistic and Asia Minor models.

The epigraphic evidence reading by Nikolay Sharankov (the best Bulgarian epigrafist) reveals that the theatre was built on account of city’s magistrates: Tarsas and his wife; the phylarch Tit Flavius Kotis; the three times archipriest of Thrace; aided by the Roman authorities – the procurator Tiberius Claudius Sacerdos Iulianus and the legate Gnaeus Minicius Faustinus,as well as by the Thracian Common Council and Tiberius Claudius Dorzinthes. Deputies of the city’s ten tribes held the people’s assemblies between the statues of a gods, magistrates and benefactors.