Church of St Theodore: A Medieval Orthodox Church in Nessebar
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.4
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- Bulgaria
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern
- Civilizations
- Bulgarian
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Church
On this page4 sections
History
The Church of St Theodore is a medieval former Orthodox church in Nessebar, Bulgaria, built in the thirteenth century during the Second Bulgarian Empire, the Bulgarian medieval state that existed from 1185 to 1396. Dedicated to St Theodore, the church is associated with the Bulgarian Orthodox Church and belongs to the Sliven Diocese and Burgas deanery, administrative divisions within that church.
The church’s name has also been linked with Tsar Theodore Svetoslav, a Bulgarian ruler who reigned from 1300 to 1322 and captured Nessebar from the Byzantine Empire in 1304. The building was restored in the twenty-first century and now houses an art gallery. It has protected cultural-monument status and forms part of the Architectural and Historical Reserve of Nessebar.
Remains
Church Structure
The church stands at the easternmost part of Nessebar’s historic center. It is a small, single-nave basilica, meaning that it has one principal longitudinal interior space, with a narthex, or entrance vestibule, and one apse, the sanctuary end of the building. The structure measures approximately 8.70 by 4.15 metres. Its construction combines smoothly worked stone blocks, white limestone, and brick.
Blind arcades extend along the full length of the walls. These shallow arches serve as wall decoration rather than open passages and are formed from alternating stone blocks and brick. Their upper inner sections contain geometric ornament, with checkerboard and zigzag patterns arranged in alternating sequence. A late-medieval two-aisled roof is also associated with an enlargement of the building. The west and north walls survive from the historical church, while the other two walls were reconstructed.
Iconostasis
A seventeenth-century iconostasis, the screen separating the sanctuary from the nave in an Eastern Orthodox church, survives with its original icons. The icons are exhibited in the icon collection of Nessebar’s city museum.
