The Church of St George is a medieval Eastern Orthodox church in the city of Kyustendil, which lies in southwestern Bulgaria and is the administrative capital of Kyustendil Province. The church is located in the Kolusha neighbourhood, which was historically separate from the city. The church was constructed in the 10th–11th century and its frescoes are somewhat later, as the earliest layers were painted in the 11th–12th century.

History

The Church of St George is dated to the late 10th or early 11th century based on its architectural appearance and mural paintings, which makes it the oldest preserved church in the city. It is located in Kyustendil’s southwestern part, in the former village of Kolusha, which in 1939 was merged into the city.

There is a theory that Bulgarian emperor Michael Shishman was buried in the Church of St George after he perished in the Battle of Velbazhd in 1330.^[1][2] The battle was a Serbian victory over the Second Bulgarian Empire which paved the way for the short-lived Serbian dominance over the Balkans in the mid-14th century. However, scholar Bistra Nikolova entirely dismisses this theory as an “erroneous reference in [Bulgarian history] literature”.

Despite being located outside Kyustendil at the time, up until the construction of the city’s main Bulgarian National Revival-style church in 1816, the Church of St George served as Kyustendil’s cathedral. The church suffered some severe damage during the 19th century, the time of the Ottoman rule of Bulgaria; it was mostly destroyed, leaving only the foundations of the arches. It was reconstructed in 1878–1880, just after the establishment of the Principality of Bulgaria, with further restoration in the 2000s.