Red Church in Bulgaria

View of the partially restored unique and the only one in central and south-east Europe Red Church in Bulgaria.The Red Church is a large partially preserved late Roman -early Byzantine Christian basilica in south central Bulgaria, is one of the most remarkable architectural masterpieces of the early 4th century A.D. Dating to the late 5th-early 6th century, the church stands near the town of Perushtitsa, some 15 kilometres southwest of the city of Plovdiv. Probably built under Emperor Anastasius I 491-518, next to an old heathen sanctuary nearby the key main roads leading from Thrace to the White Sea and from Constantinople to Western Europe. It is believed that its place was connected to a popular Christian cult to the martyrs. The Red Church is a centrally planned building with four apses with ambulatories. This plan is very rare for the Balkans. Similar to it (Photo by NurPhoto/NurPhoto via Getty Images)