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Hidden gem5th – 7th c. ADUnknown

Red Church, Perushtitsa

Chervenata tsarkva, Червената църква, Peroushtitsa

church · Plovdiv Province, Bulgaria

What it is
The Red Church is a large late Roman basilica of solid red brick, roofless but with its north wall still about 14 m high, about 1 km from Perushtitsa, about 15 km south-west of Plovdiv (en.wikipedia; bg.wikipedia).
What you’ll see
The church measured 32.70 m by 25.90 m. Its north wall, the best preserved, stands about 14 m high; the building had four semi-domes around a central dome, almost none of which survives, a narthex and an outer narthex, a baptistery with a pool faced in pink marble against the north side of the narthex, and a chapel on the south side (en.wikipedia).
Worth the trip?
Yes, from Plovdiv: it is a short drive, and a late Roman church still standing 14 m high is a rare sight. It is a single ruin in open country, so pair it with Plovdiv's Roman sites rather than travelling for it alone.
Getting there & cost
The church is about 1 km from Perushtitsa, at the foot of the Rhodopes. A footpath of about 700 m leads to it from the main road towards the town, where there is a small car park and a sign at the turning (bg.wikipedia).UnknownHours, tickets and parking
An aerial view of the ruined brick church, its tall walls and arches braced by a metal frame, with the low outlines of the narthexes and side rooms laid out in stone on the ground and a wooden walkway beside them.
The church from above, with the plan of its narthexes and annexes laid out on the ground. · Photo: Bollweevil · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
The tall ruined shell of a red-brick church with arched openings and the stump of a dome, standing on a lawn behind low stone foundations, with a wooden walkway on the right and green hills under a cloudy sky.
The Red Church, with its north wall standing about 14 m high. · Photo: Spasimir Pilev · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
A great brick arch framing a metal support frame, with smaller arched openings on either side and low brick piers on the floor in front.
The central arch, held by the metal frame fitted in the 2013 restoration. · Photo: Spasimir Pilev · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

What is there today

The church measured 32.70 m by 25.90 m. Its north wall, the best preserved, stands about 14 m high; the building had four semi-domes around a central dome, almost none of which survives, a narthex and an outer narthex, a baptistery with a pool faced in pink marble against the north side of the narthex, and a chapel on the south side (en.wikipedia). The floor was laid with mosaic and the walls painted; some of the decoration is in the National Historical Museum in Sofia, while frescoes left on the walls are exposed to the weather (en.wikipedia; bg.wikipedia).

It is one of only three brick churches of that period preserved in Bulgaria, with St Sophia in Sofia and the Old Bishopric in Nesebar (en.wikipedia). Since a restoration completed in 2013 the walls have been held by metal beams in place of the old wooden scaffolding, and a visitor centre has been built beside it (en.wikipedia).

Is it worth the trip?

Yes, from Plovdiv: it is a short drive, and a late Roman church still standing 14 m high is a rare sight. It is a single ruin in open country, so pair it with Plovdiv’s Roman sites rather than travelling for it alone.

Getting there

The church is about 1 km from Perushtitsa, at the foot of the Rhodopes. A footpath of about 700 m leads to it from the main road towards the town, where there is a small car park and a sign at the turning (bg.wikipedia). The only car park OpenStreetMap maps near the church is private. We could find no opening hours or fee published by an operator; OpenStreetMap tags the visitor centre, run by the Perushtitsa town museum, as charging a fee.

Visiting details

Tickets
Unknown
Parking
bg.wikipedia describes a small car park on the main road towards Perushtitsa, where a 700 m footpath leads to the church; the only car park mapped near the church itself is private (OSM way/1308973174).
On foot
About 10 min from the parking

Before you go

  • We could find no operator page with opening hours or a fee (searched 3 October 2026). OpenStreetMap maps a visitor centre beside the church, run by the Perushtitsa town museum and tagged with a fee, but gives no amount or hours.

History

The church was probably built under the emperor Anastasius I (491–518), though bg.wikipedia dates it as early as the 4th century, and it is thought to have been a martyrium, built to hold the relics of a popular saint (en.wikipedia). The name comes from the red of its bricks (en.wikipedia). In the 10th and 11th centuries it was rebuilt, with some side passages walled up using bricks from the church itself, a second layer of frescoes was painted, and a cemetery grew up around it; it was in use until the 14th century (en.wikipedia; bg.wikipedia).

It was first excavated in 1915, and again from 1921 with funds from the American Byzantinist Thomas Whittemore. Shored up with wooden scaffolding in 1985, it reopened in 2013 after restoration (en.wikipedia).

Nearby

  • A row of tall piers of red brick banded with pale stone, three of them still joined by round arches, standing on a low stone wall along a grassy verge beside a road, under a blue sky with clouds.

    Photo: Gitanes232 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Commons

    15 km · aqueduct · Plovdiv Province

    Aqueducts of Plovdiv

    What you see is a row of tall piers in opus mixtum, courses of squared stone alternating with courses of brick, with a few arches restored between them, in the central strip of Komatevsko Shose Boulevard at the Komatevo junction.

  • A small semicircular auditorium of stone seats rising in steps round a paved orchestra floor of large worn marble slabs, with a metal railing and a road bridge above the top row.

    Photo: Gitanes232 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Commons

    18 km · theatre · Plovdiv Province

    Odeon of Philippopolis

    The odeon has all the parts of a covered theatre: a stage building, an orchestra and tiered seating.

Straight-line distances.

Sources

Every fact on this page comes from the records below, each used under the licence noted.

SourceLicence
Pleiades 216926CC BY
Wikidata Q7303885CC0
OpenStreetMap way/103842853ODbL
Wikipedia (en) — Red Church (Bulgaria)CC BY-SA 4.0
Wikipedia (bg) — Червената църкваCC BY-SA 4.0