Plovdiv – the civilizational model for multicultural coexistence
Authors: Yanev Boryan , Petrova Elka 
Published: September 2022

This poster summarizes the main objectives, methods, and results of the fundamental science project Plovdiv - from a multilingual and multicultural center of Eastern Rоumelia to the European Capital of Culture. The structure and essence of the civilizational model created and functioning in the city of Plovdiv can be seen. The civilizational model for multicultural coexistence in the city of Plovdiv was set even when the city was the capital, cultural and spiritual center of Eastern Rоumelia. The model was successfully implemented even then to become traditional and set the way for the organization of a European multilingual global society today. All this gives full grounds for applying a multidisciplinary research approach aimed at the study and analysis of the specific cultural and linguistic situation with a characteristic civilizational model, giving the city the emblematic appearance of a European cultural capital.The interesting fact is that in this multicultural society the inhabitants of Plovdiv, who are engaged in the industry - Greeks, Armenians, and Jews, have developed an internal and external banking trade, which places Filipopol in one of the first places among the commercial cities of the Balkan Peninsula. Traditional holidays in Plovdiv are an irrevocable part and building block for sustainable tolerant relations in the cosmopolitan Bulgarian city. The most attractive and spontaneous place for various events is the "Pepinierata" - a wide green meadow surrounded by slender poplars. The city of Plovdiv has been defined by researchers as one of the centers where the foundations of modern national culture were laid. It is not for nothing that authors are inspired and as a result, they named the city with emotional analogies like the "Bulgarian Athens" (Louis Léger) or the "Bulgarian Weimar" (Manyo Stoyanov). Plovdiv is a territory in which representatives of several ethnic-confessional communities live. Along with other characteristics, they are distinguished by different parameters of demographic processes, which lead to an uneven change in the number of persons from the main ethnic groups. This affects the values ​​of their relative shares in the general structure of the population on this basis. Against the background of the constant conflicts in the Balkan region - mainly on a religious basis and less on an ethnic one, Plovdiv is an example of the functioning Bulgarian multi-ethnic model. The long-term coexistence of different ethnicities on the city's territory, built over the centuries, has led to mutual enrichment and contributed to the achievement of mutual tolerance between representatives of individual ethnicities. The data shows the diversity of the city of Plovdiv, the combination of tradition, culture, and education is the reason for the existence of a functioning civilizational model in the city of Plovdiv.

The authors express sincere gratitude to the Scientific Research Fund at the Ministry of Education and Science and the "Scientific and Project Activity" Division at Plovdiv University "Paisiy Hilendarski" for the assistance provided.