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Hidden gem5th – 6th c. ADTicketed

Small Basilica of Philippopolis

Small Basilica, Малка базилика

church · Plovdiv Province, Bulgaria

What it is
The Small Basilica of Philippopolis is an early Christian church of the 5th century on the eastern edge of Roman Plovdiv, and its floor mosaics, restored and laid back in place, are the reason to visit (bg.wikipedia; en.wikipedia).
What you’ll see
The church had three aisles, one apse and a narthex, and measures 20 m long with its apse and 13 m wide; a small chapel stood on the south side and a baptistery against the north aisle.
Worth the trip?
Yes, as part of a walk through Roman Plovdiv. It is a single small church, but the mosaics are fine and well presented, and the site is almost fully accessible to visitors with limited mobility (bg.wikipedia).
Getting there & cost
The basilica is on Knyaginya Maria Luiza Boulevard in central Plovdiv (en.wikipedia), about 570 m from the Roman theatre. A car park is mapped about 40 m away and the Paparatsi bus stop about 45 m away (OpenStreetMap).Ticketed · €3.58 for adults and €1.53 for students and visitors over 65 (the operator's single-site ticket) · checked 2 October 2026Hours, tickets and parking
Inside a bright modern hall, the low stone walls of an early church and patches of geometric floor mosaic lie below railed walkways and glass, with display cases along the white walls.
The basilica's walls and mosaics inside the protective building. · Photo: Realsteel007 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
A cross-shaped stone font sunk into the floor, surrounded by mosaic with a stag standing among vines and a geometric border, behind a low railing.
The baptistery, with its cross-shaped font and the mosaic of a stag. · Photo: Realsteel007 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
A modern building of red and grey panels with a large window and a cylindrical grey tower, set in a small landscaped park with lawns and young trees.
The protective building over the basilica, in its small park. · Photo: Realsteel007 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

What is there today

The church had three aisles, one apse and a narthex, and measures 20 m long with its apse and 13 m wide; a small chapel stood on the south side and a baptistery against the north aisle. It was richly fitted, with a marble colonnade between the aisles, a marble altar screen, a pulpit and a bench for the clergy in the apse (bg.wikipedia; en.wikipedia). Its floors are covered with many-coloured mosaics of geometric patterns, vases and garlands, rosettes and Solomon’s knots, counted among the best work of the mosaicists of Philippopolis (bg.wikipedia). The square baptistery has a cross-shaped font and a mosaic with a stag, doves and other Christian symbols (en.wikipedia; bg.wikipedia).

Since 2013 the remains have stood under a protective building, where a glass platform covers the 5th-century mosaics, in a small park that also shows part of the eastern city wall with a tower, a stretch of ancient street and the courtyard of a house (bg.wikipedia).

Is it worth the trip?

Yes, as part of a walk through Roman Plovdiv. It is a single small church, but the mosaics are fine and well presented, and the site is almost fully accessible to visitors with limited mobility (bg.wikipedia).

Getting there

The basilica is on Knyaginya Maria Luiza Boulevard in central Plovdiv (en.wikipedia), about 570 m from the Roman theatre. A car park is mapped about 40 m away and the Paparatsi bus stop about 45 m away (OpenStreetMap).

It is open daily, 09.30 to 18.00, with a lunch break from 12.30 to 13.00. A ticket is €3.58 for adults and €1.53 for students and visitors over 65; a combined ticket with the Bishop’s Basilica and the Eirene Residence is €12.78 (oldplovdiv.bg, read 1 October 2026).

Visiting details

Opening hours
Daily 09.30–18.00, closed for lunch 12.30–13.00.
Tickets
€3.58 for adults and €1.53 for students and visitors over 65 (the operator's single-site ticket); free under 7. A combined ticket for the Bishop's Basilica, the Small Basilica and the Eirene Residence costs €12.78.
Parking
A car park is mapped about 40 m away (OSM way/1200608928); the Paparatsi bus stop is about 45 m away (OpenStreetMap).
On foot
About 1 min from the parking

Hours and prices checked 2 October 2026 on the operator's own site. Confirm before travelling.

History

The basilica stood at the eastern edge of the ancient city, against the outer wall, near the eastern cemetery and a martyrs’ shrine on the road to Constantinople. It was built in the second half of the 5th century in honour of Flavius Basiliscus, commander in Thrace, who drove the rebel Goths back from Philippopolis in 471; a six-line dedication in the mosaic before the altar praised him. When Basiliscus, emperor from 475, was overthrown by Zeno after 20 months, the first lines of the inscription were removed (bg.wikipedia).

Soon afterwards the church burned down. It was rebuilt with a floor raised by about 0.70 m, and the baptistery was added; it served until the end of the 6th century, when it was abandoned (bg.wikipedia). It was found in 1988 during the building of an apartment block, restored from 2010 with the support of the America for Bulgaria Foundation, the Ministry of Culture and the municipality, and opened to visitors on 1 May 2014 (en.wikipedia; bg.wikipedia).

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
Wikidata Q16744679CC0
OpenStreetMap way/145774622ODbL
Wikipedia (bg) — Малка базилика (Пловдив)CC BY-SA 4.0
Wikipedia (en) — Small Basilica, PlovdivCC BY-SA 4.0
Old Plovdiv (Starinen Plovdiv), the municipal institute — ticket prices and opening hourslicence not recorded