The Church of Sveta Bogoroditsa (Saint Theotokos) is a late medieval Bulgarian Orthodox church located in the town of Sozopol, Burgas Region. The church is located in the northern part of the old town, and was built in the 15th century on the site of an older church.
The church is a three-nave single-apsed pseudo-basilica. From the outside, this low building can easily be confused with an ordinary house; this architectural solution is explained by the fact that under Ottoman rule, churches in the country had to be no taller and no larger than mosques (however, this could not guarantee that the church would not be destroyed). The church is built of hewn stone and reinforced with wooden buttresses.
Throughout the centuries of its existence, the building has been reconstructed several times, so that now it is very difficult to judge what its original appearance was. There are no traces of old frescoes on the walls inside, but the valuable carved iconostasis (decorated with floral ornamentation and scenes from the Holy Scriptures), the ambo and the bishop's throne, made in the 18th century by the masters of the Debar school, have been preserved.
In 1927, the building was reconstructed in 1927.
In 1927 the building was declared an object of national historical heritage ("Narodna Starina"), and later, in 1962, an architectural monument of national importance. In 1967, the Bulgarian Ministry of Culture also declared the iconostasis of the church an artistic monument of national importance.
Today, the church's iconostasis is still in use.
Today the Church of Sveta Bogoroditsa is a functioning church of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church and is open to the public.
