Plovdiv markets already have their guide, which was presented in an online event on January 28, 2021. This is a guide to urban cultural tourism, which you can use if you want to know a little more about the markets as places and part of our cultural heritage.
The first and only Market Manager contains information about 7 markets in Plovdiv, which combine past, present and future, as well as interesting facts from the life of the city. In the publication you can find practical information where they are, how to get to them, what you can find there or what to expect from sellers in the market.
The urban market guide presents the markets as places, people and practices that are part of the living culture of Plovdiv. They are a kind of “living museums” that tell about different communities. Until now, Plovdiv has not presented the cultural heritage of the markets as an opportunity for alternative cultural tourism. The commercialization of modern market relations, the increasing frequency of online shopping, which is gradually displacing contact with people in the market, as well as its transformation into a market threaten the vitality and sustainability of the living culture of people and markets.
They are not only a place for trade and exchange of goods, in fact, but they are also social spaces for socializing and the intersection of different social, cultural, and religious groups. Even today, despite being physically transformed, upgraded or newly built, markets keep and maintain specific practices and knowledge that are passed down through the generations. The guide is a result of several months of field research with anthropological methods such as observations, notes, mapping and surveying elements of the cultural heritage of the markets.
The digital guide can be found here in Bulgarian and English, and the printed edition – in some hotels and tourist sites in Plovdiv. An online map shows the selected markets and their location.
Due to the great interest in the event for the presentation of the Plovdiv Market Guide, we also share a recording of it.
The market leader is part of the project “City and markets – opportunities for cultural tourism” of ACEA “Mediator”. It is support by the National Culture Fund, and is implemented in partnership with the “Localfood.bg” Foundation and the Pendara Farmers Market, the Plovdiv Tourism Council, Ariva Travel and the Faculty of Philosophy and History at the University of Plovdiv “Paisii Hilendarski”.
