The South Region is officially the most densely populated district under the hills and its population surpasses even that of some regional cities such as Shumen, for example. In recent years, the place has grown and been built up a lot, and you can read more about the history of the section around the Concrete Bridge in one of our previous articles.
Today, however, we will walk you along a very ordinary street in this part, on which there is nothing remarkable at first glance, but which presents in a rather interesting aspect the development of the space, combining in itself both the low-rise, almost dilapidated one-story houses of the past, and new cooperatives and panel blocks.
The name Petrova Niva comes from one of the most sacred places in the Strandzha mountain, where on the Transfiguration, June 11-13, 1903, 47 delegates of the congress of the Internal Revolutionary Organization of the Bulgarians from Thrace made the historic decision to support the Ilinden Uprising that broke out earlier in Macedonia. It was extinguished with unheard of cruelty, and the survivors left their homeland and sought salvation in a free Bulgaria.
Its beginning is from the small Petrol gas station on Dimitar Talev Street. The first buildings are low five-story blocks built around 1978 in typical Socialist architecture. It is curious that entrances 1 and 3 are on the street, and numbers 2-16 are built in an L-shape between Petrova Niva Street and Chorlu Street.
Another interesting fact is that if you drive straight along it, you can’t get out onto a larger street. Although it is one of the longest in the neighborhood and is crossed by Nikola Vaptsarov Boulevard and ends at Aleksandar Stamboliyski Boulevard, all the approaches are without a direct exit to the road.
It takes around 15 minutes of normal walking in one direction and the landscape constantly alternates between old buildings from the beginning of its construction with buildings from socialism, monolithic family cooperatives and completely new construction. However, everything is up to about 5 floors and at times even creates the feeling of walking in a small Bulgarian town or even a village.
Between the buildings there are still spaces where the residents have placed benches for gathering together and relaxing, and for the children there are the remains of the oldest models of climbing frames and swings. Probably one of the last to be seen in the neighborhood, as literally every corner between the blocks now has a building permit.
Along its length, there are exactly three small grocery stores that opened their doors around the 1990s and are still withstanding the competition of the large supermarkets nearby. At the very end, there is a sign for a pastry shop, which, however, is closed on the weekend, and you will even find a paid parking lot on a still undeveloped spot!
Here, this is the meaning of the expression "getting lost in the city" and literally rediscovering a place that, although not popular with tourists, conveys a part of its charm for the unique atmosphere of the city under the hills.
And which is your street that you want the team of the only bilingual digital guide in Plovdiv to walk along next time?
