Old Town (Revival houses)

The painted hills

Plovdiv’s Old Town is the cluster of cobbled lanes climbing the city’s upper hills, and its glory is the National Revival architecture: tall timber mansions from the nineteenth century, their upper floors jettied out over the street and their facades painted in ochre, blue and dusty pink. Merchants grew rich here and built to show it, and the result is one of the best-preserved ensembles of its kind in the Balkans. Simply wandering the lanes is free, and on a bright day the painted houses, the wrought-iron gates and the long views over the city are reason enough to come.

The catch is that from the street you only see the outside. The houses were built around courtyards, and the real craftsmanship — carved wooden ceilings, painted walls, period furniture — is indoors.

Which houses to go inside

You do not need to enter every mansion, and most are private anyway. The three worth the small ticket are the Balabanov House, the Hindliyan House and the Ethnographic Museum house (the Kuyumdzhioglu house), each charging in the region of €3. Between them you get the painted interiors, the carved ceilings and the sense of how a wealthy Revival-era family actually lived, which is more rewarding than photographing one more facade. Pick two or three rather than trying to do them all.

Allow two to three hours for the wander and a couple of interiors. Wear shoes that cope with worn, uneven cobbles, which are slippery in the wet and steep in places. The Old Town sits right above Plovdiv’s Roman theatre and amphitheatre, so it is easy to fold the whole upper town into one afternoon. House museums tend to keep daytime hours and some close one day a week, so confirm current hours and prices on the official site before you climb up.