# Plovdiv Amphitheatre - February 2015



## MrDan (Mar 3, 2015)

Plovdiv Roman Amphitheatre - Bulgaria
Visited with Adam X, slightly intoxicated, on a cold night in February 2015

History:
The Ancient theatre of Philippopolis. It is thought the theatre was constructed roughly around 100AD and was damaged around 443AD by Attila the Hun. The theater was only discovered in the early 1970's due to a landslide, this caused a major archaeological excavation and it was restored by the Bulgarian Conservation School. The theatre once seated 7000 people and the seats in the open spectators area are made from marble. It is thought that the theatre was once used for gladiatorial fights against animals, it is now used during the Summer months for plays and musical shows.

Our Visit:
At the beginning of February a group of brave explorers travelled to Bulgaria, we landed at Plovdiv airport and picked up our 'hire cars' from some dodgy looking blokes in a car park. We checked in to our super cheap hostel after a mad game of supermarket sweep to stock up on food and booze for the following few days. It was about half 11 at night when Adam X and I decided to go for a bit of a wander around the old town we'd just driven through. We found this Roman Amphitheatre lit up like a Christmas tree, clearly it was a major tourist attraction during the day. 
Unfortunately it was night time, so we had to hop the fence instead! We spent a good 40 minutes in here, we were up above the first level of columns and I was taking the last shot at the bottom of this report when a security guard ran out on to the stage. It was hilarious, he was on his phone looking around frantically, he knew someone was around but had no idea who or where. I couldn't help but think of an audience shouting "They're behind you!" like a pantomime. Eventually he looked up and gave us the 'you shouldn't be here look'.. when he realised we were English, all he could say was "My job.." and he walked us out.

The lights made it quite difficult to photograph but here are my photos.

Our first glimpse of the theatre from the top of the seating area.






Looking out towards the seating area.





Columns.





A broken archway to one side of the stage.





The full moon piercing through the clouds.





Light trails in the city below, this shot was taken while the security guard was below us looking around.


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## UrbanX (Mar 3, 2015)

Nice one, pure comedy! 
Fantastic photos too, thanks for sharing.


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## krela (Mar 3, 2015)

Very nice!


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## flyboys90 (Mar 4, 2015)

That sounded fun.Cracking shots.


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## LittleOz (Mar 7, 2015)

Really interesting looking place at night and sounds like a fun visit.


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## night crawler (Mar 8, 2015)

Superb well worth the effort just hope you did not cost him his job but must have been funny to watch.


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## Jaymo (Mar 12, 2015)

Just great! Nice shots, Mr. D, and a good story. It's a shame the floods made the photography difficult, but they came out nicely, and on the bright side, at least the place is being curated and presented respectfully instead of just being left to rot like so many beautiful places.

That shot of the archway is gorgeous - something about the lighting and staircase in that pic makes me feel like you can almost picture it in its rightful time period.

One last thought - I wonder if UrbEx'ers of the 4th and 5th centuries had sketches of Atilla for the various situations under the "Do Not" column.... In which case, we probably need to add an item to the modern-day guidelines "Do not pillage, plunder, or attempt to subjugate entire nations of peaceful people with your marauding armies." ;-D


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## Greenbear (Mar 20, 2015)

Stunning - great pics


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## marieke (Mar 22, 2015)

Really nice pictures, funny how things always look different at night!!!!!!!


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