Great Basilica, Pliska, Medieval religious complex in Pliska, Bulgaria

The Great Basilica of Pliska is a ruined church complex comprising a cathedral, an archbishop's palace and a monastery, built on the site of an older cross-shaped structure. Completed around 875, the cathedral measured 102.5 m long and 30 m wide. Its surviving foundations lie within a stone wall over 4 m high with battlements.

This religious structure was built around 875, following Bulgaria's official adoption of Christianity, and became a symbol of the kingdom's new faith under the ruler Boris I. It maintained its importance for centuries before eventually falling into decline.

The complex was a cathedral, archbishop's palace and monastery at once for about 250 years, and its school taught law, architecture and building alongside scripture. The disciples of Cyril and Methodius, received by Boris I in 886, are thought to have worked here, starting the Pliska-Preslav literary school of Old Bulgarian.

The site sits close to the ruins of the ancient capital and is accessible from there on foot without difficulty. An on-site museum displays carved stones, architectural fragments, and religious objects recovered from excavations over the years.

The cross-shaped building under the basilica is not a burial chamber but an older religious structure whose purpose is debated: some scholars see a Bulgar pagan temple, others a martyrium holding the relics of Saint Enravota, the first Bulgarian martyr, killed around 832. Boris I built the new church directly over it.