Plovdiv is located in the southwestern part of Bulgaria. The city has been built upon seven ancient hills found on the Thracian plain, and now spreads on both sides of the Martisa River.

In the 7th century B.C. Thracian people were inhabiting the land around the Hebros (Maritsa) River. . Skilled craftsmen and artisans, they tended vines and made wine. Rare for the ancient world, roses with 60 to 100 petals grew in Thrace. Here on these hills along this river was one of the centers of a most advanced civilization. During the period of the first millenium B.C. settlements appeared near these seven hills and by the 5th century B.C. a town with a solid fortified wall, cobblestone streets and a drainage system was formed, Philippopolis. The ruins of this settlement can be found among the rocks of Nebet Tepe in Old Town Plovdiv.

The old city centre of Plovdiv has been declared an architectural museum reserve with over 150 monuments, most of which date from the beginning of the 19-th century, the National Revival period. Many houses have been turned into museums, galleries, workshops, restaurants or pubs. The best examples of the Baroque style of Plovdiv are the house of Koiumjioglu (now an ethnographical museum), the house of Georgiadi (now the Rennaissance museum of the national struggle), the house of Nedkovich (the municipality), the house of Chomaka (the gallery of the renowned Bulgarian painter Zlatyo Boyajiev), the house of Balabanov (now a gallery of modern painting, as well as a concert hall), the house of Lamartine (the house of writers) where the French poet Alfonse de Lamartine stayed during his diplomatic mission in Turkey.

The streets of the old town are steep and cobbled with bow-windows and eaves above them. Facades are colored in harmonious combinations, with stylish patterns of white and blue. Windows have either wooden shuttles, or iron nets.