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Hidden gem2nd – 4th c. ADTicketed

Odeon of Philippopolis

Античен одеон

theatre · Plovdiv Province, Bulgaria

What it is
The Odeon of Philippopolis was the council house of Roman Plovdiv, a small covered theatre of 300–350 seats on the north side of the city's forum.
What you’ll see
The odeon has all the parts of a covered theatre: a stage building, an orchestra and tiered seating.
Worth the trip?
As part of a walk through Roman Plovdiv, yes. It is small, a fraction of the size of the main theatre, and what you see was conserved and partly restored in 2002, but with the forum and the library next to it, it shows the civic heart of the Roman city rather than its entertainments.
Getting there & cost
The odeon is on General Gurko Street in the city centre, near the main pedestrian street and the Central Post Office (bg.wikipedia).Ticketed · The operator's standard single-site ticket, which covers all its sites except the Bishop's Basilica, is €3.58 for adults and €1.53 for students and visitors over 65 · checked 1 October 2026Hours, tickets and parking
Excavated stone walls, paved strips and column bases in mown grass, with a few re-erected white columns and the houses of the city centre behind.
Excavated remains at the odeon, with re-erected columns behind. · Photo: Gitanes232 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
A small semicircular auditorium of stone seats rising in steps round a paved orchestra floor of large worn marble slabs, with a metal railing and a road bridge above the top row.
The odeon's seating and orchestra. · Photo: Gitanes232 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
A deep vault of red brick laid in a fan pattern, springing from walls of rough stone banded with brick, opening onto a paved path.
A brick-and-stone vault at the odeon. · Photo: Gitanes232 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

The Odeon of Philippopolis was the council house of Roman Plovdiv, a small covered theatre of 300–350 seats on the north side of the city’s forum. Its seating and orchestra have been restored, and it is used for concerts again (the operator; bg.wikipedia).

What is there today

The odeon has all the parts of a covered theatre: a stage building, an orchestra and tiered seating. The stage stood 1.50 m above the orchestra, and its front rose two storeys in the Corinthian order; vertical grooves in the stage wall suggest machinery for raising and lowering a curtain. The orchestra is paved with large marble slabs, and the seats rest on vaults (bg.wikipedia). Excavation turned up marble fragments of the building, an inscription on the base of an imperial statue, original marble columns and 87 silver coins, probably hidden during the Gothic invasion (the operator).

The odeon stands on the north side of the forum, the largest forum complex in Bulgaria, which measured 143 m by 136 m; much of it is on show in the open, together with restored columns, while the rest lies under modern buildings. An underpass for Knyaginya Maria Luiza Boulevard, built in the 1980s, cut the forum in two and separated it from the odeon (bg.wikipedia; the operator).

The library

Just west of the odeon, also on the north side of the forum, are the remains of the city’s library, a rectangular building about 15 m by 20 m. It held manuscripts and scrolls and was used for teaching, readings, public debates and speeches (bg.wikipedia).

Is it worth the trip?

As part of a walk through Roman Plovdiv, yes. It is small, a fraction of the size of the main theatre, and what you see was conserved and partly restored in 2002, but with the forum and the library next to it, it shows the civic heart of the Roman city rather than its entertainments.

Getting there

The odeon is on General Gurko Street in the city centre, near the main pedestrian street and the Central Post Office (bg.wikipedia). A paid car park is mapped about 90 m away, and bus stops at the Central Post Office underpass about 80 m away (OpenStreetMap).

It is open Tuesday to Sunday, 09.00 to 18.00, closed for lunch from 13.00 to 14.00 (the operator). The operator’s standard single-site ticket is €3.58 for adults and €1.53 for students and visitors over 65; its price list does not name the odeon separately (oldplovdiv.bg, read 1 October 2026).

Visiting details

Opening hours
Tuesday to Sunday 09.00–18.00, closed for lunch 13.00–14.00; closed on Mondays.
Tickets
The operator's standard single-site ticket, which covers all its sites except the Bishop's Basilica, is €3.58 for adults and €1.53 for students and visitors over 65; free under 7. Its price list does not name the odeon separately.
Parking
A paid car park is mapped about 90 m away (OSM node/8962842472, fee=yes); bus stops at the Central Post Office underpass are about 80 m away (OpenStreetMap).
On foot
About 1 min from the parking

Hours and prices checked 1 October 2026 on the operator's own site. Confirm before travelling.

History

The odeon was built under Hadrian, emperor from 117 to 138, as the council house (bouleuterion) of the city, and was later used as a theatre. It went through four building periods, from the 2nd to the 4th century, when it was abandoned (en and bg.wikipedia). Evidence of the Gothic destruction of 250/251 has been found around it (en.wikipedia).

The forum around it was laid out under Vespasian in the 1st century and completed in the 2nd; life there faded in the middle of the 5th century, when barbarian raids drove the people of Philippopolis from the plain up to the acropolis (bg.wikipedia). The odeon was found in 1988 by the archaeologists Z. Dimitrov and Maya Martinova, declared a cultural monument of national importance in 1995, and conserved and opened to visitors in 2002 with the help of the Leventis Foundation (bg.wikipedia).

More photographs

Low walls of brick and stone and scattered marble blocks in an excavated area, with re-erected columns, steps and a modern walkway in the background.
The remains of the library, beside the odeon. · Photo: Realsteel007 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Nearby

  • A row of tall piers of red brick banded with pale stone, three of them still joined by round arches, standing on a low stone wall along a grassy verge beside a road, under a blue sky with clouds.

    Photo: Gitanes232 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Commons

    3 km · aqueduct · Plovdiv Province

    Aqueducts of Plovdiv

    What you see is a row of tall piers in opus mixtum, courses of squared stone alternating with courses of brick, with a few arches restored between them, in the central strip of Komatevsko Shose Boulevard at the Komatevo junction.

  • A massive ruined gateway of stone and brick, its central arch still standing between two broken masses of masonry that rise above it, with a road running through the arch and trees on either side.

    Photo: BlackfishFoto · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Commons

    40 km · city · Plovdiv Province

    Diocletianopolis

    The walls run for 2,327 m round about 20 ha, 2.60–4 m thick and up to 12.5 m high, and once had 44 towers, four main gates and six smaller ones; the south and west gates survive best, the south gate rising to 13 m (bg.wikipedia).

Straight-line distances.

Sources

Every fact on this page comes from the records below, each used under the licence noted.

SourceLicence
Pleiades 229782807CC BY
Wikidata Q26046109CC0
OpenStreetMap way/103432948ODbL
Wikipedia (en) — Odeon of PhilippopolisCC BY-SA 4.0
Wikipedia (bg) — Античен одеон (Пловдив)CC BY-SA 4.0
Wikipedia (bg) — Форум на ФилипополCC BY-SA 4.0
Wikipedia (en) — Library of PhilippopolisCC BY-SA 4.0
Wikipedia (bg) — Антична библиотека (Пловдив)CC BY-SA 4.0
Wikipedia (en) — HadrianCC BY-SA 4.0
Old Plovdiv (Starinen Plovdiv), the municipal institute — Ancient Odeon of Philippopolislicence not recorded
Old Plovdiv (Starinen Plovdiv) — ticket prices and opening hourslicence not recorded