The Patriarchal Cathedral of the Holy Ascension of God is a former Eastern Orthodox

Eastern Orthodox Church

The Orthodox Church, officially called the Orthodox Catholic Church and commonly referred to as the Eastern Orthodox Church, is the second largest Christian denomination in the world, with an estimated 300 million adherents mainly in the countries of Belarus, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Georgia, Greece,...

 cathedral in the city of Veliko Tarnovo

Veliko Tarnovo

Veliko Tarnovo is a city in north central Bulgaria and the administrative centre of Veliko Tarnovo Province. Often referred to as the "City of the Tsars", Veliko Tarnovo is located on the Yantra River and is famous as the historical capital of the Second Bulgarian Empire, attracting many tourists...

, in north central 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...

. Located on top of the fortified Tsarevets

Tsarevets

Tsarevets is a medieval stronghold located on a hill with the same name in Veliko Tarnovo in northern Bulgaria. It served as the Second Bulgarian Empire's primary fortress and strongest bulwark from 1185 to 1393, housing the royal and the patriarchal palaces, and is a popular tourist...

 hill in the former capital 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...

, the cathedral was the seat of the Bulgarian patriarch from its construction in the 11th–12th century to its destruction in 1393.

Standing on top of a late Roman church, the cathedral, reconstructed in the 1970s and 1980s, follows a cross-domed plan with a bell tower and a triple apse. Richly decorated on both the exterior and interior, its internal walls now feature modern frescoes, the presence of which has meant that it has not been reconsecrated. Though not active as a Christian

Christianity

Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...

 place of worship, it has been open for visitors since 1985.

History

The Patriarchal Cathedral of the Holy Ascension of God is not the first church building to occupy the position on top of the Tsarevets hill. It was constructed directly on top of a late Roman

Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....

 (early 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...

) basilica

Basilica

The Latin word basilica , was originally used to describe a Roman public building, usually located in the forum of a Roman town. Public basilicas began to appear in Hellenistic cities in the 2nd century BC.The term was also applied to buildings used for religious purposes...

 which dates to the 5th–6th century AD. The Roman basilica may have remained in use by the local congregation during the First Bulgarian Empire

First Bulgarian Empire

The First Bulgarian Empire was a medieval Bulgarian state founded in the north-eastern Balkans in c. 680 by the Bulgars, uniting with seven South Slavic tribes...

, though it was no longer active by the time the construction of the current church began.
The current building of the Patriarchal Cathedral is considered by scholars to have been built in two stages. The first stage of construction was carried out in the late 11th century or the 12th century. The cathedral was initially built as a monastery

Monastery

Monastery denotes the building, or complex of buildings, that houses a room reserved for prayer as well as the domestic quarters and workplace of monastics, whether monks or nuns, and whether living in community or alone .Monasteries may vary greatly in size – a small dwelling accommodating only...

 church in the middle of a monastery compound, though in the early 12th century it was already the seat of the Bulgarian patriarch. The compound suffered large-scale damage caused by a fire, which necessitated the church's reconstruction in middle of the 14th century, perhaps during the rule of Tsar Ivan Alexander of Bulgaria

Ivan Alexander of Bulgaria

Ivan Alexander , also known as John Alexander, ruled as Emperor of Bulgaria from 1331 to 1371, during the Second Bulgarian Empire. The date of his birth is unknown. He died on February 17, 1371. The long reign of Ivan Alexander is considered a transitional period in Bulgarian medieval history...

 (r. 1331–71). Besides repair and reinforcement efforts, work on the church in the 14th century also included the construction of the exonarthex and the bell tower

Bell tower

A bell tower is a tower which contains one or more bells, or which is designed to hold bells, even if it has none. In the European tradition, such a tower most commonly serves as part of a church and contains church bells. When attached to a city hall or other civic building, especially in...

.

There are several references to the cathedral in medieval sources. The earliest reference to the church tells of the transfer of Saint Michael the Warrior's relics from the Potuka fortress to the Patriarchal Cathedral on the order of Tsar Kaloyan

Kaloyan of Bulgaria

Kaloyan the Romanslayer , Ivan II , ruled as emperor of Bulgaria 1197-1207. He is the third and youngest brother of Peter IV and Ivan Asen I who managed to restore the Bulgarian Empire...

 (r. 1197–1207). The housing of a warrior saint's relics in the Patriarchal Cathedral signifies the incessant warfare against Byzantines and Latins

Latin Empire

The Latin Empire or Latin Empire of Constantinople is the name given by historians to the feudal Crusader state founded by the leaders of the Fourth Crusade on lands captured from the Byzantine Empire. It was established after the capture of Constantinople in 1204 and lasted until 1261...

 that dominated Kaloyan's reign. In the late 14th century, the last Patriarch of Tarnovo, Saint Evtimiy, described the church as the "great patriarch's Cathedral of the Holy Ascension" in his writings.

Another possible reference to the church may be in a marginal note from 1358 to a copy of the Acts of the Apostles

Acts of the Apostles

The Acts of the Apostles , usually referred to simply as Acts, is the fifth book of the New Testament; Acts outlines the history of the Apostolic Age...

. In the note, the copyist, one Laloe, thanks God and the "Holy and Most Glorious Ascension" for having finished his work on the book. Scholar Bistra Nikolova believes this to be an allusion to the Patriarchal Cathedral, which may have patronised the project. Alternatively, the copy could have been made at the cathedral's scriptorium

Scriptorium

Scriptorium, literally "a place for writing", is commonly used to refer to a room in medieval European monasteries devoted to the copying of manuscripts by monastic scribes...

, where Laloe may have worked.

The church is also depicted in the medieval sketch of Tarnovo in the Braşov Menaion, a menaion

Menaion

The Menaion refers to the annual fixed cycle of services in the Eastern Orthodox and Greek-Catholic Churches. Commemorations in the Menaion are tied to the day of the calendar year.-Service books:...

 service book written in the mid-14th century and then carried to Kronstadt (now Braşov

Brasov

Brașov is a city in Romania and the capital of Brașov County.According to the last Romanian census, from 2002, there were 284,596 people living within the city of Brașov, making it the 8th most populated city in Romania....

, Romania

Romania

Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...

) after the fall of Bulgaria under Ottoman

Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...

 rule.

The Patriarchal Cathedral was destroyed after the Ottomans captured the Bulgarian capital after their Siege of Tarnovo

Siege of Tarnovo

The siege of Tarnovo occurred in the spring of 1393 and resulted in a decisive Ottoman victory. With the fall of its capital, the Bulgarian Empire was reduced down to a few fortresses along the Danube.- Origins of the conflict :...

 on 17 July 1393. The church was fully reconstructed in the 20th century; reconstruction works were carried out by a team under architect Boyan Kuzupov. These commenced in 1978 and were finished in 1981, to mark Bulgaria's 1300th anniversary. However, it was not until November 1985, when the contemporary murals were finished, that the church was opened once again for visitors. The church's ruins have been protected as a national antiquity since 1927; in 1967, they were proclaimed an architectural monument of culture of national importance.
As part of the Tsarevets architectural reserve, it is also listed among the 100 Tourist Sites of Bulgaria

100 Tourist Sites of Bulgaria

"100 Tourist Sites of Bulgaria" is a Bulgarian national movement established in 1966 to promote tourism among Bulgaria's most significant cultural, historic, and natural landmarks....

.

Location and architecture

The Patriarchal Cathedral of the Holy Ascension of God is located on top of the Tsarevets hill, overlooking the modern city of Veliko Tarnovo. The church was part of a group of buildings which constituted the seat of the Bulgarian Patriarchate and acted as the city and the country's main cathedral. The patriarchate on Tsarevets was a fortress of its own, with two defensive towers and an entrance on its west wall. The Patriarchal Cathedral stood in the middle of its courtyard.

The Patriarchal Cathedral features a triple apse

Apse

In architecture, the apse is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome...

, the central part of which matches the apse of the original basilica on the site. The three-naved church follows the traditional Byzantine

Byzantine architecture

Byzantine architecture is the architecture of the Byzantine Empire. The empire gradually emerged as a distinct artistic and cultural entity from what is today referred to as the Roman Empire after AD 330, when the Roman Emperor Constantine moved the capital of the Roman Empire east from Rome to...

 cross-in-square

Cross-in-square

The term cross-in-square or crossed-dome denotes the dominant architectural form of middle- and late-period Byzantine churches. The first cross-in-square churches were probably built in the late 8th century, and the form has remained in use throughout the Orthodox world until the present day...

 design. Built out of crushed stones and mortar

Mortar (masonry)

Mortar is a workable paste used to bind construction blocks together and fill the gaps between them. The blocks may be stone, brick, cinder blocks, etc. Mortar becomes hard when it sets, resulting in a rigid aggregate structure. Modern mortars are typically made from a mixture of sand, a binder...

 with limited brickwork

Brickwork

Brickwork is masonry produced by a bricklayer, using bricks and mortar to build up brick structures such as walls. Brickwork is also used to finish corners, door, and window openings, etc...

, it measures 26 by 12 m (85.3 by 39.4 ft). The cathedral includes two narthices, a bell tower and two other premises attached to the south church wall. The presence of a bell tower is considered to be a rarity in Balkan church architecture. Six columns support the interior and distinguish the altar

Altar

An altar is any structure upon which offerings such as sacrifices are made for religious purposes. Altars are usually found at shrines, and they can be located in temples, churches and other places of worship...

 from the cella

Cella

A cella or naos , is the inner chamber of a temple in classical architecture, or a shop facing the street in domestic Roman architecture...

 (naos). It is unclear whether the church housed a synthronon (stone benches for the clergy) in the apse, as there are doubts that its remains may actually be part of the older basilica.

The church featured ample exterior and interior decoration. While the facades were decorated with arches and ceramic tiles, the interior floor mosaics were made of white, yellow and pink marble

Marble

Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite.Geologists use the term "marble" to refer to metamorphosed limestone; however stonemasons use the term more broadly to encompass unmetamorphosed limestone.Marble is commonly used for...

 as well as semi-precious gemstone

Gemstone

A gemstone or gem is a piece of mineral, which, in cut and polished form, is used to make jewelry or other adornments...

s like sapphire

Sapphire

Sapphire is a gemstone variety of the mineral corundum, an aluminium oxide , when it is a color other than red or dark pink; in which case the gem would instead be called a ruby, considered to be a different gemstone. Trace amounts of other elements such as iron, titanium, or chromium can give...

 and porphyry

Porphyry (geology)

Porphyry is a variety of igneous rock consisting of large-grained crystals, such as feldspar or quartz, dispersed in a fine-grained feldspathic matrix or groundmass. The larger crystals are called phenocrysts...

. The interior walls were covered with fresco

Fresco

Fresco is any of several related mural painting types, executed on plaster on walls or ceilings. The word fresco comes from the Greek word affresca which derives from the Latin word for "fresh". Frescoes first developed in the ancient world and continued to be popular through the Renaissance...

es and mosaics. However, none of the interior decoration has survived. During the church's 20th-century reconstruction, its interior was repainted by artist Teofan Sokerov, who depicted important moments of medieval Bulgarian history in a modernist

Modernism

Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society...

style. Due to these murals, the church has never been reconsecrated and remains inactive. The facade of the cathedral also includes a stone with a donor's inscription of a Bulgarian ruler, which ended up as part of the building material.

There are a total of four burial grounds in and around the church, two of which are burials for priests. One of the burial grounds is inside the exonarthex, where overarched tombs were built in the 14th century. Besides Michael the Warrior's relics, the cathedral also housed the remains of Bulgarian patriarchs Joachim I, Macarius and Joachim III.