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Modern Plovdiv revolves around ploshtad Tsentralen , an arid concrete plaza dominated by the post and telephone office and the monolithic Hotel Trimontium Princess , which has been undergoing slow, long-term refurbishment for the last few years. Remnants of a Roman forum were discovered during the development of the area - you can explore a section of this marble-paved, once-colonnaded square by descending into a sunken area in front of the hotel. Further remains can be seen on the other side of the post office. Just east of here is ul. Kapitan Raicho, a leafy residential street enlivened by a daily open-air clothes market. To the west of Tsentralen, the Tsar Simeon Garden - a lovely patch of greenery with an unusual musical fountain at its heart - marks the tail end of the evening korso , an animated promenade in which hundreds of people stroll down Plovdiv's main street, ulitsa Knyaz Aleksandar I . Pedestrianized and lined with shops and cafe-bars with outdoor tables, the street was named after the ideologue Vasil Kolarov in Communist times, but now rejoices in its prewar title once more. The City Art Gallery at no.15 (irregular hours) houses a fine collection of nineteenth-century portraits, including one deeply reverent, almost iconic Portrait of Bishop Sofronii of Vratsa , painted in 1812 by an unknown artist. Also look out for Tsanko Lavrenov's pictures of nineteenth-century Plovdiv, painted in the 1930s and 1940s and suffused with a dreamlike nostalgia. The ground floor is given over to regularly changing exhibitions of modern works, including many by local artists. Due to the gallery's erratic opening schedule, though, you'll probably have more luck at the State Gallery of Fine Arts in the old town.
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