|
Knyaz Aleksandar I leads onto ploshtad Dzhumaya , where Plovdiv's history and social life coexist in an amiable confusion of monuments, cafes and stalls, around a concrete pit exposing the ruins of a Roman stadium . This is but a meagre section of the original, horseshoe-shaped arena where the Alexandrine Games were held during the second and third centuries: as many as 30,000 spectators watched chariot races, wrestling, athletics and other events from the marble stands that once lined the slopes of the neighbouring heights. A more impressive structure is the Dzhumaya dzhamiya or "Friday mosque", with its diamond-patterned minaret and lead-sheathed domes. Its thick walls - badly cracked in places - and the configuration of the prayer hall (divided by four columns into nine squares) are typical of the so-called "popular mosques"of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, although it's believed that the Dzhumaya might actually date back to the reign of Sultan Murad I (1362-89). It is open most days, and visitors are welcome to inspect the pale blue interior, with its fountain and floral-pattened walls. Northeast of the mosque lies the old charshiya , or bazaar quarter , where narrow streets still bear the names of the trades that used to operate from here: ul. Zhelezarska was the preserve of the ironmongers, and Abadzhiiska, that of the weavers and cloth merchants. The name abadzhiya derives from abas , the coarse woollen cloth that the Plovdiv merchants bought from Rhodopi shepherds before exporting it throughout the Levant. In Ottoman times Plovdiv's commercial district stretched from here northwards to the River Maritsa, and in the sixteenth century the Arab traveller Chelebi counted 880 shops raised "storey above storey". There is little trace of the old crafts and trades today, but the modern ul. Raiko Daskalov is nevertheless lined with shops, banks and cafes, with stalls selling books as far north as the pedestrian subway beneath bul. 6 Septemvri, and clothes stalls right across the footbridge to the north bank of the Maritsa, making it almost as lively as it must have been in Chelebi's day.
Your Tip for Ploshtad Dzhumaya
Help other backpackers! Write your own guides and backpacking tips to Ploshtad Dzhumaya - they will appear instantly on this page - Please only write a tip/guide to Ploshtad Dzhumaya - visit the main Ploshtad Dzhumaya forum to ask a question!
Please do not post links to your site here (they won't work) - please use the Ploshtad Dzhumaya webguide section below! Thanks.
| 
