The commercial area of the town was between that mosque and the river Maritza. One of the oldest clock towers in Eastern Europe is located behind Sahat Tepe. The clock is working even nowadays. As the Turkish traveller Evlya Chelebi wrote in 1651, "Philibe is the biggest one among 10 big towns in the European part of Turkey, and is getting richer every day".
The 19th century brought Plovdiv closer to the rennaissance from cultural opression during the Turkish occupation. That was the time of spiritual awakening when the Bulgarian people began their struggle for religious, cultural and political independence. Many citizens of Plovdiv sacrificed their lives because they had the courage to rise against the sultan. In 1850 the well-known enlightener Naiden Gerov established a class school. In the following year the anniversary of the Slavic enlighteners Sts. Cyrillus and Methodius was celebrated for the first time. Hristo G. Danov founded the first Bulgarian publishing house in 1855. He circulated the printed books, newspapers and magazines around the Bulgarian land. The first printing press in Bulgaria appeared at that time. The Bulgarian revolutionist Vassil Levski organized a revolutionary committee in Plovdiv.
The long cherished liberation came to Plovdiv on January 19, 1878, after 500 years of waiting. However, the extasy of it was short. The Berlin Congress divided newly liberated Bulgaria into the Principality of Bulgaria and the autonomous region of Eastern Rumelia with its capital Plovdiv. Just seven years later the unification of Bulgaria was proclaimed on September 6, 1885. That was the first blow agains the unfair Berlin Agreement. This is a photo of the lovely monument in the middle of Unification Square that honors the hundredth anniversary of that great event. The monument depicts the Mother-Country with the laurel wreath of victory stretched in her hands, with her two wings, the two regions brought together, ready for the coming 20-th century.
On September 9, 1944 the Nazi were driven off Bulgaria and the communists came on power. A very close relationship with the former USSR was established and many monuments were built in the honor of the USSR. One of them, the monument of the Russian soldier Aljosha, has remained at the top of a hill in Plovdiv.
The end of communism for Bulgaria is quite recent -- November 10, 1989. Plovdiv was a place of major demonstrations of the democratic forces in the country. Some people refer to the city as "the blue (democratic) capital of Bulgaria."
