UNKNOWN ANCIENT ROMAN THERMAE DISCOVERED BY ACCIDENT IN BULGARIA’S PLOVDIV

The newly discovered Ancient Roman bath house in Bulgaria’s Plovdiv dates to ca. 2nd century AD. Photo: Plovdiv24

A previously unknown building of Ancient Roman thermae (public baths) has been discovered during the construction of a residential building in the southern Bulgarian city of Plovdiv, the successor of ancient Philipopolis.

The well preserved walls of the Roman bath house have just been exposed in rescue excavations led by archaeologists Maya Martinova and Sofiya Hristova from the Plovdiv Museum of Archaeology, reports local news site Plovdiv24.
The discovery has been made on private property located at 13 Otets Paisiy (“Father Paisius") Street in downtown Plovdiv, which is also known as “Europe’s oldest city“.

The project for the construction of a residential building there has been controversial, first of all, because it provided for the destruction of a home from the 1920s with a cultural heritage status, but also because later one of the archaeologists noticed that the builders had reached structures from the Antiquity period.

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