Church of the Holy Forty Martyrs

The Church of the Holy Forty Martyrs sits in the Asenov quarter, below the fortified hills, and dates from 1230 — one of the most important surviving churches from the Second Bulgarian Empire. Its exterior is modest; the interior repays attention. The two inscribed marble columns built into the walls came from earlier Byzantine structures and carry texts that are key primary sources for 13th-century Balkan history.

The church was built on the site of a Byzantine structure that Ivan Asen II converted after his victory at Klokotnitsa, a battle that briefly made the Bulgarian Empire the dominant power in the Balkans. Medieval frescoes survive in fragments; the columns remain in place. The location in the lower Asenov quarter, with Tsarevets and Trapezitsa visible on their hills above, makes the historical geography of the medieval city immediately legible from the church's doorstep.

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A story
The church was built in 1230 by Tsar Ivan Asen II to commemorate his victory over the Byzantine Empire at the Battle of Klokotnitsa. Inside, two inscribed marble columns — one Greek, one Bulgarian — were repurposed as architectural elements; the Bulgarian inscription is one of the most important medieval texts in the Bulgarian language and records Ivan Asen's conquests in detail.