Boyana Church

A small medieval church on the southern edge of the city, at the foot of Vitosha — a UNESCO World Heritage Site for the astonishing quality of its 1259 frescoes. The building is three churches in one: a 10th-century domed apse, a 13th-century narthex (where the famous frescoes are), and a 19th-century western extension.

Visits are limited to ten minutes inside (to protect the paintings from humidity) and groups of no more than eight at a time. Buy the ticket combined with the National History Museum a short walk away. To reach it, take bus 64 from Hladilnika metro.

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A story
The 1259 frescoes of Boyana Church are some of the earliest realistic portraits in European medieval art, predating the Italian Renaissance by half a century. The faces of the donors, Sebastokrator Kaloyan and his wife Desislava, are individualised in a way that no other Byzantine-tradition painter of the period attempted. The anonymous painter is sometimes called the first Renaissance artist.

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