Address: Assenova Mahala area, Veliko Turnovo
Open: Every day, 9.30 to 18.00 (ticket window closes at 17.30)
Entry: Five leva (one lev for students); groups of 10 or more - four leva a person; guided lectures - five leva in Bulgarian, 10 leva in any other language.
* Entrance is free on the last Sunday of the month, on Easter and Christmas, March 9, August 15, September 14, for serving armed forces personnel, for the disabled, and for pre-school-aged children.
* On May 18 and November 1, entry is one lev for all, and free for students.
* Price for taking pictures: five leva with a camera, 30 leva with a video camera

The Holy 40 Martyrs Church in Veliko Turnovo is not, as I had imagined, sitting on the crest of a wooded hill, reachable by a dirt path requiring a pilgrimage-like toil, but at the foot of Tsarevets, in a valley - the one that makes the house-decked hills of the city all the more famous.

Built out of some holey stone that I cannot identify, the church is surprisingly early Middle Ages (almost Cistercian) in style. Surprisingly, perhaps, because I had expected something more "Eastern Orthodox" looking. The church's origins are thought to date back to the ninth century, when it was called the Birth of the Holy Virgin. But when it was constructed in its present style - in the mid-13th century, following a decision by Tsar Ivan Assen II to mark his victory at Klokotnitsa over Theodore Komnenos Doukas on March 9 1230, which also happened to be the day of the 40 Holy Martyrs of Sebaste - it had not been too long since the Great (East-West) Schism, so maybe that is why the building's architecture pays tribute to Western influence.

The medieval tsars Kaloyan, Ivan Assen II, Mihail Shishman, tsaritsa (princess) Anna Maria and Tsaritsa Irina, and Saint Sava of Serbia are buried here.
Under the Ottoman Empire, the Holy 40 Martyrs Church (called "tsurkva Sveti Chetirideset Muchenitsi" in Bulgarian) was used as a mosque from the 16th century. After the Liberation in 1878, it was again dedicated to the Christian faith. It was here that "[o]n September 22 1908 at noon in the Church Holy 40 Martyrs, in the presence of the ministers of the government of Prime Minister Alexander Malinov, members of parliament, religious figures and residents of Turnovo, after a celebratory prayer offered up by coadjutor Stefan Abadjiev, Prince Ferdinand I proclaimed the Principality of Bulgaria, vassal state of the Ottoman Empire, an independent kingdom and took the title of King of the Bulgarians," as the black plaque at the entrance to the church says.

Services were held there until 1964, when it was declared a monument of culture of national significance. In any case, it has since been completely renovated, and on September 14 2006 was consecrated by Bishop Gregory of Turnovo.

In the presentation of the call for projects for the church's restoration, it was written that there were many factors contributing to the difficulty of a successful bid (only five were submitted), from the ruins covered for decades by an "unsightly shed", to its significance as one of the most important religious sites in the country. Little has remained of the church's original architecture, apart from some relief engravings on the interior marble columns, and a chipped-away portion of a mural of Saint Elizabeth with a young John the Baptist. There is another mural, but it has been removed for restoration - such said the man who works there, upon my asking him what the numbers 1 to 53 written on one of the walls indicated. The whole is a bit austere, but the setting is pretty. And the surrounding park is nice for just sitting, relaxing and contemplating.