In the very heart of Plovdiv / Bulgaria is an area that fascinates with its past beauty and smell of tobacco: the so-called Tobacco City. The unique tobacco warehouses from the 1920's, with few exceptions, are now abandoned, many of them in extremely bad condition. Some have already been demolished and others restored without consideration of restoration standards to become offices and/or luxury residential buildings. The project "Tobacco City" is an essential part of Plovdiv 2019 bid book for European Capital of Culture. It belongs to the platform TRANSFORM and the cluster URBAN DREEMS.
Municipal Foundation "Plovdiv 2019″ is non-government organization and it was established in 2011 by Plovdiv's City Council. The main objectives were to develop and to prepare Plovdiv's bid book for European Capital of Culture in 2019. The organization has a board of directors, which consists of 9 members and an Executive Director. The foundation also has a Public Council, chaired by the mayor of the city, and a Control Board supervises the organization's activities.