Almost exactly a decade ago, Steve Green, the Chairman of the European Commission jury entrusted with the task of selecting the next European Capitals of Culture (ECC), announced Plovdiv as the first ever Bulgarian city to win this accolade - for 2019. But even the most ardent fans of this rather unknown European contest could not have anticipated the effect on the city. Plovdiv's selection as Capital of Culture sealed the perception that it was moving in the right direction - the moment when it became clear that after the long wanderings of the 1990s, Bulgaria's second city was taking center stage once again.
After the weightlessness of the previous 10-15 years, in which Plovdiv seemed to be mulling its identity - whether it was a city in retreat because it was not Sofia, whether it was an agricultural hub, whether it was an industrial center - the title of cultural capital gave it new direction and thinking. The following 5 years marked a great, ongoing transformation for Plovdiv. Last week, Capital weekly spoke to some of the people involved in the process to highlight the golden legacy of this period.
10 years ago
Stefan Stoyanov, deputy mayor in three administrations between 2011 and 2023 and former chairman of the board of the specially created Plovdiv 2019 Municipal Foundation, recalls that at the very beginning "we tried to explain to everyone that this is a regional development project", even though the focus is on culture in its various dimensions. "And culture in Europe has always had a significant impact on a city and region, on their economy and popularity," he adds. This was the first time in Bulgaria that a city talked about culture not as some complementary annoyance that the municipality should support from its coffers, but as a fundamental, formative part of its identity. For once, the pen turned out to be more important than the asphalt.
Stoyanov attributes the success of Plovdiv's candidacy to its realistic programme. The projects were achievable and did not require huge budgets, which the state would not have granted anyway. In the course of preparation, things were done that were revolutionary for Bulgarian cities - for example, cleaning the visual environment, with a ban on new billboards, or the unification of the external elements of restaurants in the center - something that holds up to the present.
Kapana district
This is perhaps today the most visible part of the heritage of the cultural capital. The project started before the city won the title, but was tied to it because it played a role in Plovdiv's bid. The transformation of the derelict craft quarter in the center is one of the greatest achievements of the ECC, the Foundation and the Municipality of Plovdiv. Before the intervention of the then mayor Ivan Totev's administration, the streets around it were used for parking, the pavements were broken and, according to Stoyanov, about 200 of the premises there were unusable. The municipality initially funded 10 of them to be donated to various artists, beginning the revitalization of the neighborhood. In parallel, over the years, it invested around 3 million levs in turning it into a pedestrian area.
Stoyanov says, not without pride, that today Kapana is "the most famous tourist destination in the country." Today it houses mostly restaurants, but the neighborhood also has a total of about 400 micro- and small businesses that generate tens of millions in revenue. It also allows the city to talk about more pedestrian zones - a taboo topic in cities like Sofia, for example.
Money for culture and festivals
The other great legacy is the normalization of the process of dedicating municipal funds for culture. According to Plamen Panov, the current deputy mayor for culture, archaeology and tourism, one of the biggest successes of the ECC is increased funding for culture. Since winning the title, the budget has increased annually by 5-10%, reaching 6 million levs in 2024.
This money is used to fund events from the cultural calendar of the municipality, as well as through open calls for projects of the Plovdiv 2019 Foundation, but also state cultural organizations - opera, drama and puppet theater, and community centers. Plovdiv 2019 itself is also clearly a legacy that continues. It was formed on a particular model - that a management unit separate from the municipality would take care of the cultural calendar, and this continues now.
Thanks to the increased cultural budget, festivals such as Kapana Fest, Hills of Rock, Shake that hill, Plovdiv Jazz Fest and many smaller and newer ones, have been established over the years. Some of them held their tenth edition in 2024. "It would never have happened for major productions from Sofia to move to Plovdiv," Viktor Yankov, who led the Plovdiv 2019 Foundation, says.
Influx of tourists
The ECC brand has also managed to put the city at the center of the tourist map "Let's go to Plovdiv" has become one of the most frequent weekend-tourism phrases in Sofia, but also in Burgas, and even more distant cities like Varna. For a city enclosed inland, with no access to the sea and no obvious natural features, such a success is remarkable. Plovdiv regularly features in rankings of Western publications as a "place to visit," which has also led to an increase in foreign interest, as seen in the steadily growing tourist influx.
Accommodation statistics show that while there were - at best - 3,500-4,000 hotel beds in 2014, by the end of 2023 they had doubled to around 8,800. Global chains such as Radisson and Wyndham have entered the city through partnerships with existing hotels such as Trimontzium and Imperial. The most significant was the opening of three new high-end hotels - two 5* and one 4* - within just a few months in 2022. The number of visitors has also been increasing with double-digit numbers every year since 2019. The new arrivals bring more business for restaurant owners and cultural operators, too, but also make the city attractive to foreigners who might consider living and working in it.
A lot of the projects that were part of Plovdiv's application book for the ECC never materialized - such as the revamp of the so-called "Tobacco district" near the train station, which still mostly remains in ruins, the reopening of the Cosmos cinema or the integration of the Adata island on the Maritsa river into the city. But looking back, 2019 would always feel like a peak development period for Bulgaria's second city, and subsequent years - like a momentum of that time, which will continue to drive Plovdiv for a period, despite its unresolved problems. But to keep developing, the city will have to find a new purpose. Possibly a bigger one.
Almost exactly a decade ago, Steve Green, the Chairman of the European Commission jury entrusted with the task of selecting the next European Capitals of Culture (ECC), announced Plovdiv as the first ever Bulgarian city to win this accolade - for 2019. But even the most ardent fans of this rather unknown European contest could not have anticipated the effect on the city. Plovdiv's selection as Capital of Culture sealed the perception that it was moving in the right direction - the moment when it became clear that after the long wanderings of the 1990s, Bulgaria's second city was taking center stage once again.
After the weightlessness of the previous 10-15 years, in which Plovdiv seemed to be mulling its identity - whether it was a city in retreat because it was not Sofia, whether it was an agricultural hub, whether it was an industrial center - the title of cultural capital gave it new direction and thinking. The following 5 years marked a great, ongoing transformation for Plovdiv. Last week, Capital weekly spoke to some of the people involved in the process to highlight the golden legacy of this period.