Church of Saint George, Sofia

42°41′48.75″N 23°19′22.35″E / 42.6968750°N 23.3228750°E / 42.6968750; 23.3228750

The St. George Rotunda and some remains of Serdica can be seen in the foreground
Roman street

The Church of Saint George (Bulgarian: Ротонда „Свети Георги“, romanizedRotonda "Sveti Georgi") is a Late Antique red brick rotunda in Sofia, Bulgaria. Built in the early 4th century as Roman baths, it became a church inside the walls of Serdica, capital of ancient Dacia Mediterranea during the Roman Empire and Byzantine Empire.[1] The Early Christian church is considered the oldest building in modern Sofia and belongs to the Bulgarian Orthodox Church.

The building, a cylindrical domed structure built on a square base, is famous for the 12th-, 13th-, and 14th-century frescoes inside the central dome. Three layers of frescoes have been discovered, the earliest dating back to the 10th century. Frescoes of 22 prophets over 2 metres tall crown the dome. Painted over during the Ottoman period, when the building was used as a mosque, these frescoes were only uncovered and restored in the 20th century.[2]

  1. ^ Rizos, Efthymios; Darley, Rebecca (2018), Nicholson, Oliver (ed.), "Serdica", The Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity, Oxford University Press, doi:10.1093/acref/9780198662778.001.0001/acref-9780198662778-e-4297, ISBN 978-0-19-866277-8, retrieved 2020-06-12
  2. ^ "Rotonda Sveti Georgi". Archived from the original on 2014-05-20. Retrieved 2013-09-16.

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