Plovdiv still holds the second place for a large Bulgarian city after our capital. Until recently, the largest neighborhood was “Trakia”, whose population easily exceeded that of a number of small Bulgarian towns. To date, however, the largest district in the city under the hills is “Kuchuk Paris”in whose huge blocks, like the one in the “Oasis”, we can count inhabitants whose number boldly rivals the number of inhabitants of a number of native towns and villages.
The history of the largest neighborhood in Plovdiv
“Kyuchuk Paris” arose at the beginning of the 20th century, and at the dawn of its formation it consisted of adobe houses located in a neighborhood settled mainly by refugees after the First World War from Serbia, Thrace and Macedonia, who were actually the first residents of “Kyuchuk Paris”, although Roma have already settled in the southern regions of Plovdiv and have built a Roma suburb. After the Chirpa earthquake in 1928, which collapsed the neighborhood and caused considerable damage, new planning was carried out and the Roma were resettled in today’s Stolipinovo and Sheker Mahala neighborhoods.
The brick houses built by the refugees to shelter them also give the name of the hamlet – “Brick hamlet”. The origin of the modern name of the neighborhood is related to the pub opened by one of the settlers, which he called “Little Paris”. In Turkish, a small ekütük. Thus, the neighborhood became known as “Kyuchuk Paris”, which is how we find it in all official documents until 1944. Today it is also widely known in this way, and over the years the pronunciation has changed slightly and you can more often hear it as “Kichuk Paris” – with the letter “i” replacing the “yu”.
Another theory of the origin of the name of the neighborhood tells of the ball factory erected there, whose tower resembled the Eiffel Tower, which is why the city was called “Little Paris”.
The largest neighborhood in Plovdiv today
Today, the district, which is still widely called “Kyuchuk Paris” by both Plovdiv residents and guests of the city, although this is not its official name, is the most densely populated in Plovdiv with 83,524 people, which is about 2,000 ahead of the central area .
This is due to two facts – as in the past it was preferred by new settlers and refugees, so today Bulgarians from other areas who settle in Plovdiv in search of better living conditions and livelihood choose this neighborhood as their place , as well as from the availability of free land to the mountain, a fact that allows mass construction of new residential buildings.
In contrast to “Kyuchuk Paris”, the central area of Plovdiv is so densely built-up that it was difficult and even impossible to become part of grandiose construction plans related to the construction of new large residential buildings, which would increase the population of the neighborhood. Therefore, in the long term, Kyuchuk Paris is expected to continue to grow and maintain its lead over the Central area.
However, did you know that the district of “Kyuchuk Paris” actually consists of 7 separate neighborhoods, although most residents indicate that they live in Kuchuk Paris and are not at all excited that as many as 7 names are included under this general name – “Hristo Botev – North” and “Hristo Botev – South”, gk. “Yuzhen”, “Moder”, “Macedonia”, “Ostromila-Belomorski” and “Komatevo”. A curious question is whether, if the population of “Kyuchuk Paris” is divided into these 7 districts, it will still be the largest district in Plovdiv or will the Central and “Thrakia” overtake it in number of inhabitants? Probably, “Thrakia” will not succeed, because even there the neighborhood is divided into 7 units, which already have their names, and not just numbers – Trakia A1, for example, as it was until recently. The fact is, however, that the district, considered today the largest and most populated in Plovdiv, is precisely “Kyuchuk Paris” – a field with vegetable gardens, which was transformed by the refugees into a workers’ quarter, which grew rapidly over the years.
