The forum has rectangular shape, close to the shape of a square, with dimensions: 143 m in north-southern direction and 136 m in east-western direction. A complex of public buildings was built to the North, dominating over the rest of the buildings at the square. Three entrances, situated along the axes of the eastern, southern and western edge, provide access to the streets, located at the sides of the Forum. The main streets
cardo and
decumanus maximus intersect outside the eastern entrance of the complex. It was used as a market thoroughfare where merchants and people from the city and the region gathered to exchange Thracian grain, wood and honey for fine pottery and bronze vessels brought as far as Italy. Stores and shops occupied the eastern, the southern and the western side of the forum and patrons entered them through narrow porticoes. Four main construction phases can be distinguished in the historical layers of the forum. They are different in terms of their level, architectural design and use of building materials. The first construction phase marks the beginning of the complex development and bears the plan shape of the urban square. During the second construction phase the levels of the shops, the
ambulation and the area were raised. A heavy
crepidoma supports the
stylobate of columns in the
Doric order, made of sandstone. The stone drainage leading rainwater away from the roof of the
portico kept its original place. The
ambulation was 11 m wide. The eastern, southern and western sides were formed by four-column
propylaea in the
Ionic order. During the third construction phase the plastic decoration of the complex was replaced. The portico around the area is made of marble. The largest number of well-preserved original remains date back to the fourth and final construction phase. Over the existing crepidoma a new stylobate of syenite blocks was placed. It bore a marble arcade of free-standing columns in the Roman
Corinthian order. The public buildings for the needs of urban governance and other manifestations of urban life were situated in the northern part of the forum complex. Epigraphic documents attest the existence of an official treasury. In the northeast corner an
odeon (
Bouleuterion) is unearthed, and to the west of it are the remains of city library. At the northern side of the complex some inscriptions, related to the religious and administrative life of the town were found, along with a piece of an invitation card for a performance of gladiator fights. In the area were found pedestals for statues, an exedra – a platform for speeches, and remains of an altar with inscriptions, dedicated to the goddesses
Demeter and Kore (
Persephone). It went silent in the middle of the 5th century when waves of Barbarians forced the people of Philippopolis to abandon the quarters in the plain and move to the acropolis. == Conservation and Restoration ==