Old town | Eastern sector of the Roman Stadium

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Eastern sector of the Roman Stadium

The archaeological excavations carried in 2005 - 2006 unearthed a sector of the eastern area of the Stadium of Philippopolis, integrated today into the basement of the modern commercial building.

The displayed archaeological remains are part of the eastern auditorium sitting rows of the stadium of Philippopolis. In the absence of supporting rocks, the marble seats were set on a built system of inclined vaults.

As in the other buildings dedicated to entertainment throughout the Roman empire, the seats of honour in the stadium of Philippopolis were marked. The inscriptions found on the marble seats and on the orthostats (stone slabs set at the base of the walls) attest that the emperor's box and seats for persons of high social status were nearby. The discovered seat with the inscription "hymn singers" is a proof that there were seats reserved for people worshipping the imperial cult.

In the 4th c. AD a water cistern of bricks was built to the east of the stadium. The cistern was part of the late-Antiquity water distribution system of Philippopolis. Aqueducts brought in pure drinking water from the Rhodope Mountains.

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