The Great Basilica of Pliska was built in Pliska, the first capital of the First Bulgarian Empire. Knyaz Boris I, who ruled from 852 to 889 and was baptized in 864, ordered its construction. It was completed around 875 and served as the cathedral church. It is 102.5 meters long and 30 meters wide.
The complex included a monastery and an episcopal palace, with bathhouses with hypocausts, a school, a scriptorium and ten identical monastic cells. It also had two necropoleis, one for the monastery and one for nobles. It was built on the site of an older cross-shaped mausoleum, whose purpose is debated.
The Byzantine army sacked and burned Pliska in 811, and Omurtag rebuilt it. After Simeon I founded Preslav, Pliska was gradually abandoned.
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