Churces of Nessebar

Nesebar is sometimes said to be the town with the highest number of churches per capita. Although this might be wrong, their number and variety is still impressive. Some of the most famous include:

The Church of Christ Pantocrator
The Church of Christ Pantocrator is located on the peninsula of Nesebar, Bulgaria. The church, along with the entire island and all of the historical structures are protected by UNESCO. The structure was erected in the 13th century and is a rare example of a religious structure which has not experienced significant changes through the centuries. Although small in dimensions (16 meters by 6.7 meters) this cross-domed church still remains one of the best examples of period architecture in European history. Other architectural features of the structure include three altar niches and a narthex. Also, there are semicircular apses inside and pentahedal located on the exterior. The facades of the building are segmented by richly decorated blind niches.

Church of St Sophia or the Old Bishopric
The Old Mitropolia is a three-naved unvaulted basilica with a total length of 19 m and a width of 13 m. The division into three naves was effected by two rows of five pillars each. The middle nave (9.3 m wide) ends to the east with a big closed apse, round outside and three-sided inside. Built in the 4th-5th century and rebuilt, it functioned as a church throughout the Middle Ages. It has mixed masonry: stone and brick. It is the largest of the Nesebar churches whose overground structure has survived.

The Church of St Ioan Aliturgetos
The Church of St Ioan Aliturgetos in Nesebar, Bulgaria was not consecrated, hence the name - "aliturgetos" is the Greek for "not consecrated". The legend says that one of the builders fell down and got killed. The church canon did not allow a place where a man had been killed, to be used for worship. But according to some records services were held in it. The church was badly damaged during the 1913 earthquake (Chirpansko earthquake). Its ruins in the southern part of the peninsula show that it must have been one of the most beautiful medieval churches in Nessebar. It is a cruciform dome church with three altar apses and a narthex. It is 18.5 m long and 10 m wide. The base of the cruciform part of the church is almost quadrangular, shaped by four columns. It has mixed masonry: stone and brick; the facade walls are segmented by blind two-step niches decorated with various geometrical patterns from bricks and stone cubes (ceramic plastic style). The church was built in the 14th century; it has two entrances, from the north and south, which is rare in the architecture of church buildings.

The Church of St John the Baptist
The Church of St John the Baptistin Nessebar, Bulgaria is a domed cruciform church, built of undressed stone. It's one of the best preserved in Nessebar. It is 12 m long and 10 wide. The structure of the church consists of two cylindrical vaults which intersect in the center of the composition. The masonry is crushed stone and pebbles and the facades were probably smoothly plastered. It was built in the 10th century.It has no narthex. The altar space consists of three semi-circular apses. Four massive pillars support the dome and form the cross. Inside the walls are smooth and unbroken. Some frescoes have been preserved dating from later periods. The faded portraits of the donor and his contemporaries on the southern wall and the fragments beneath the dome date from 14th c. and the others are from the 16th and 17th centuries. One depicts St. Marina pulling a devil from the sea before braining it with a hammer - possibly representing the local merchants' hopes that their patron would deal the the Cossack pirates who raided Nessebar in the 17th c. The exterior is simple without decorative niches and ceramic plaques, typical of the ornamental style. Bricks were used as a decorative element over the entrance, in the jagged cornices and around the windows. Nowadays the church houses a gallery.


The Basilica Holy Mother Eleusa
The Basilica Holy Mother Eleusa / Tenderness / was built in the North side of the peninsula. It is dated to the VI c. It is a three-nave church with three more apses and a nartex. The two side aisles have two smaller apses pointing the North and to the South. It is 28 m long and 18 m wide. In 1920 excavations and studying started here. Now the basilica is well preserved and partly restored.
The Medieval churches of Nessebar are the pearls in the precious string of ancient cultural monuments that can be seen nowadays. Some of them completely saved and some- partially, they are the hearts of the unique atmosphere of Nessebar.

The Church St. Archangels Gabriel and Michael
The Church St. Archangels Gabriel and Michael is situated close to St. Paraskeva Church. It is a single nave cruciform building, 13,90 m in length and 5,30 m in width. Its eastern side has three small tripartite apses. The fa?ade is arched. The decoration of the drums and the space above is similar of this of St. Paraskeva. The cornice line is dominated by the dome construction, its base being preserved till now. Niches, wall-piers and longitudinal walls reach complete harmony, linking functionality with decorativeness.

The Church St. Paraskeva
The Church St. Paraskeva/ XIII-XIV c. / is a single nave church, 15 m by 6 m in size, with a nartex. A pentagonal apse is jutting out to the East. The church is built of hewn stone and bricks in rows. The Southern and northern facades are ornamented with blind arches which drums are richly decorated. The motives are fishbone, sun zigzag, checker board etc. are made of stone and bricks too. Over them decorative ornaments - round and glazed saucers are walled in.
Result of later reconstruction, the roof of the church has two slopes. It is a typical cruciform church- the roof is formed as a cross and above it, in the central part, there is a drum with a dome. In the past there has been a bell-tower over the nartex. Its existence is proved by the stone stairway inside between the naos and the nartex.

The Church of St Theodore
The Church of St Theodore is dated to the XIII c. It is a single nave church, 11m by 4-m The Southern wall was enlarged in the late Middle Age. The earlier walls were made of rows of white limestone blocks and black bricks and the later on structures of rough stones. The fa?ade is diversified with blind decorative arches and spaces in between, ornamented with staggered zigzag patterns. Some icons on the iconostasis are preserved and today are exhibited in the new exposition.

The Church St. Stephent
The Church St. Stephent, known as The New Metropolitan is a significant monument - an important example of the Bulgarian medieval architecture. It was built in the end of the XI c. but later it was twice reconstructed - in the XVI c. when the naos was elongated and in the XVIII c. when a nartex was added. The construction is made of rough stone and bricks. The church is a three-nave basilica, 12 m long and 9,50 m wide. Marble columns and rectangular pillars with supporting arches separate the nave and the aisles. At the Eastern side there are three semicircular apses that end with arches too. The roof construction is in slopes. The central nave is taller than the aisles. Here, on the eastern fa?ade, over the arches, glazed decorative saucers were implemented for the first time. They became typical for the decoration of the churches built in the later centuries XVIII-XIX.
Inside, some 700 square meters are richly painted. A donator's inscription from 1599 over the main entrance allows the frescoes to be dated. At first the church was dedicated to the Holy Mother but later the name was changed. There are 258 mural paintings and more than 1000 figures. All the compositions represent the Holy Mother's life. The scenes from the cycle The Jesus Christ Miracles confirm once again the idea of the Holy Mother being a mediator between the Son of God and the God. The scenes of every day life prove the realism in the artists' work.
The style shows that three painters have worked - two of them on the Eastern part of the naos ant the third - on the Western. Later, in the XVIII c., the scenes of the Last Judgement day were painted on the eastern part of the nartex. The iconostasis, dated to the XVI c. is made of wood sparingly decorated with fretwork. It has three ranges but only two of the registers can be seen today. This of the Apostles, Holy Mother and St. John the Baptist is under the embossed arches. The picture of Jesus Christ from the same scene is of icon size.
The epistles of the iconostasis are decorated in oriental style known as tulip style.
The bishop's throne and the pulpit / XVIII c. / attract the interest with the carvings of plants as well as the golden fields full with polychrome.

The Church St. Spass
The Church St. Spass/ XVII C. / is a small single nave and single apse building, 11,70 m long and 5,70 m wide. Above the southern entrance there is a commemorative inscription which informs that the church was built and mural painted during the time of the bishop Kiprian / 1609 /.
The walls are almost all covered with frescoes. On the southern and northern walls there are compositions with scenes from the Gospel. Figures of Saints are painted under the compositions. The Virgin Platytera is painted in the apse.
The tombstone of a Byzantine princess Mataissa Cantacuzina is saved in the church. She had been buried in 1441 in the Old Metropolitan church but later the Nessebar bishop placed her body here.

The Church St. Climent
The Church St. Climent dated to the XVII c. is richly painted too. The central apse and the table in the altar are very well saved.

Fortification Walls

The sea was the first, but not the last bar against the attacks of the enemies. During the centuries a lot of fortified systems have been built which made of the peninsula an impregnable fortress.
After excavations and following conservation and restoration have started the discovered parts of the defense system became one of the imposing monuments of the past which welcomes and accompanies the guests of the ancient Nessebar today.
The first inhabitants on the peninsula – the Thracians, started the fortification of the settlement in the VIII c. BC. A fortified wall with a gate has been found from this period. It was made of hewn stone joined by mud. The wall that can be seen nowadays is 2 m high. The oval shaped bends of the walls typical for the Thracian building can be found on it. The oval shaped bends of the walls typical for the Thracian building can be found on it.
During the time of Hellenistic colonization / VI c. BC / the colonists from Megara did not start immediately the construction of a new defense system. They built a new wall later, in the end of the V c. and the beginning of the IV c. BC. The work lasted till the III c. BC. Big stone blocks were used, their face sides being specially polished, placed in line, without any solder. The inner part of the wall was felled with broken stones and soil. Some three meters of this wall are saved nowadays. The Greek wall was well studied in the west part of the town. It can be seen that in some places it overlaps the later one – the Byzantine.
Nessebar being conquered by the Romans, the found defense system was preserved and used during the following centuries.
After the decay of the Roman Empire the Byzantine rulers undertook an active constructional work and in the middle of the V c. AD a new fortified wall has been built in opus micstrum – alternation of stones and bricks. The best-preserved part of it can be seen today near the city gate, opposite to the strip. Here the wall was faced with big orthogonal hewn stone blocks. The gate was flanked with two square towers on both sides of which round and semicircular towers were symmetrically placed. Two gates – a drawbridge like one and a twin leafed gate closed tightly the access to the town. During the Early Byzantine period a fortified wall was built on the South – West Coast, near the port. Above it there was a row of panoramic brick arches that now give to the coast a very special picturesque view. Fragments of this wall have been found out some 80- m southwest into the sea.
The early Byzantine system has been used during all the Middle ages. In the time of war attacks of the enemy part of it was destroyed seriously but it was quickly rebuilt. The first reconstruction was deled to the end of VI c. and the beginning of the VII c., after the attacks of the Avars. After khan Kroum conquered the city in the year 812 he pulled down the wall. Later, in the end of the century it was rebuilt of bricks. In the end of the XI c. the defense system was repaired once again. During the reign of King Ivan Alexander the walls were definitely reconstructed.
After the town was subjected to Ottoman rule in 1453, the defense system lost its strategic importance and, left without any special cares, gradually declined.
After the town was subjected to Ottoman rule in 1453, the defense system lost its strategic importance and, left without any special cares, gradually declined.