Plotinopolis
Plotinopolis (Greek: Πλωτινούπολις) is an ancient city founded in Thrace by the Roman emperor Trajan and named after his wife, Pompeia Plotina. From late Antiquity until the Ottoman conquest in the 14th century, it was also an episcopal see.
History
In the early 2nd century, the Roman emperor Trajan created a new city on the banks of the Maritsa River, between two surrounding hills, near modern Turkish Uzunköprü and much older Greek Didymoteicho (Demotika), and named it Plotinopolis, after his wife Pompeia Plotina. A solid gold bust of Emperor Septimius Severus found on the site of Plotinopolis in 1965 is now in the museum at Komotini.
The city would later be one of the most important towns in Thrace, having its own assembly, part of the late Roman province of Haemimontus, and had an episcopal see (suffragan of Adrianople). The ruins of the ancient city are now known as the Kale, after the Turkish for "castle".
The region was conquered by the Ottomans and the bishopric faded.
Titular diocese
The diocese was nominally restored in 1933 as a Latin Catholic titular bishopric.
It is vacant since decades, having had a single (Eastern Catholic) incumbent, of the fitting episcopal (lowest) rank :
- Titular Bishop Pavlo Vasylyk (1991.01.16 – 1993.04.20), as Auxiliary Eparch of Ivano-Frankivsk of the Ukrainians (Ukraine) (1991.01.16 – 1993.04.20); later Eparch (Bishop) of Kolomyia–Chernivtsi of the Ukrainians (Ukraine) (1993.04.20 – 2004.12.12)
