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The Renaissance town of Old Plovdiv was built during the 19th century. Today it has survived as a unique architectural ensemble on the three hills. Its houses reveal the remarkable urban culture of Bulgarian builders, as well as their sense of harmony and their creative power. The brilliant architecture with its noble, stylish simplicity could be called rightfully the Baroque of Plovdiv. The Bulgarian people have always been proud that  Old Plovdiv was restored and preserved as a large open museum in order to stay for future generations. Today Old Plovdiv is an autonomous area within the modern town with a municipality of its own. It is declared an architectural museum reserve with over 150 monuments of culture - buildings from the National Revival period. Its magnificent houses are turned into museums, galleries, workshops, restaurants, and pubs, such as "Puldin", "Trakijski Stan”, "Alafrangite", "The House of Ritora", and “The Old House". There are  also parlours and studios of painters and wood-carvers. The most distinguished examples of the Baroque of Plovdiv are the house of Koiumjioglu (now an ethnographical museum), the house of Balabanov (now a concert hall, as well as a gallery of modern painting), the house of Georgiadi (now the Renaissance museum of the national struggle), the house of Nedkovich (the municipality), the house of Chomaka  (the gallery of the renowned Bulgarian painter Zlatyo Boyajiev), the house of Lamartin (the house of writers) where the French poet Alfonse de Lamartin lived during his diplomatic mission in Turkey... The famous painting "Old Plovdiv" by Tzanko Lavrenov is probably the deepest revelation of the spirit, the excitement and the atmosphere of that fateful Bulgarian Renaissance. The wooden ceilings inside the houses of Plovdiv are carved, as if there is a sun in every room. Walls are polychromaticaly decorated. They have painted niches and fine, stylish European furniture. UNESCO awarded the Old Plovdiv a gold medal for architecture in 1979.