Kaloyan was a 13th-century Bulgaria

Bulgaria

Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...

n noble, sebastocrator of Sredets (Sofia

Sofia

Sofia is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria and the 12th largest city in the European Union with a population of 1.27 million people. It is located in western Bulgaria, at the foot of Mount Vitosha and approximately at the centre of the Balkan Peninsula.Prehistoric settlements were excavated...

) and the surrounding region during the Asen dynasty

Asen dynasty

The Asen dynasty ruled a medieval Bulgarian state, called in modern historiography the Second Bulgarian Empire, between 1187 and 1280.The Asen dynasty and the Second Bulgarian Empire rose as the leaders of a rebellion against the Byzantine Empire at the turn of the year 1185/1186 caused by the...

 of the Second Bulgarian Empire

Second Bulgarian Empire

The Second Bulgarian Empire was a medieval Bulgarian state which existed between 1185 and 1396 . A successor of the First Bulgarian Empire, it reached the peak of its power under Kaloyan and Ivan Asen II before gradually being conquered by the Ottomans in the late 14th-early 15th century...

.

Kaloyan may have been the grandson of Tsar Ivan Asen I

Ivan Asen I of Bulgaria

Ivan Asen I ruled as emperor of Bulgaria 1189–1196. The year of his birth is unknown.-Life:...

 (1189–1196) from his younger son sebastocrator Alexander, as he is mentioned as a cousin of Tsar Constantine Tih

Constantine Tikh of Bulgaria

Constantine I , which includes the shortened form of the name of his father as a patronymic), ruled as emperor of Bulgaria from 1257 to 1277....

 (1257–1277); however, his relation to the royal family may have been merely titular. Kaloyan was an opponent of Tsar Michael Asen I

Michael Asen I of Bulgaria

Michael II Asen of Bulgaria , ruled as emperor of Bulgaria from 1246 to 1256. He was the son of Ivan Asen II and his third wife Irene Komnene of Epirus , daughter of Theodore I Ducas of the Despotate of Epirus...

's (1246–1256) pro-Byzantine

Byzantine Empire

The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...

 policy and took part in the plot against him.

Sebastocrator Kaloyan is mainly known as the main donor of the Boyana Church

Boyana Church

The Boyana Church is a medieval Bulgarian Orthodox church situated on the outskirts of Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, in the Boyana quarter...

, a medieval Eastern Orthodox church

Eastern Orthodox church architecture

An Orthodox church as a church building of Eastern Orthodoxy has a distinct, recognizable style among church architectures.-History:While sharing many traditions, East and West in Christianity began to diverge from each other from an early date...

 in Boyana

Boyana

Boyana is a neighbourhood of the Bulgarian capital of Sofia, part of Vitosha municipality and situated 8 km south of the city centre, in the outskirts of Vitosha. Boyana is typically regarded as one of the best and most expensive neighborhoods of Sofia to live in...

, Sofia. An inscription from 1259 in the church describes Kaloyan's role in its construction; he is also referred to as a grandson of the Serbian

Serbs

The Serbs are a South Slavic ethnic group of the Balkans and southern Central Europe. Serbs are located mainly in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and form a sizable minority in Croatia, the Republic of Macedonia and Slovenia. Likewise, Serbs are an officially recognized minority in...

 king Saint Stephen. The church also features donor portraits of Kaloyan and his wife Desislava.

It has been theorized that Kaloyan reconstructed Roman Emperor

Roman Emperor

The Roman emperor was the ruler of the Roman State during the imperial period . The Romans had no single term for the office although at any given time, a given title was associated with the emperor...

 Constantine I

Constantine I

Constantine the Great , also known as Constantine I or Saint Constantine, was Roman Emperor from 306 to 337. Well known for being the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity, Constantine and co-Emperor Licinius issued the Edict of Milan in 313, which proclaimed religious tolerance of all...

's palace in Sofia and used it as his city residence. Two other small churches in Sofia, St Petka the Old and St Nicholas, have also been attributed to his donorship.