EXPLORATIONS OF MEDIAEVAL CHURCH NEAR THE VILLAGE OF GORSKO NOVO SELO (Iordan Aleksiev – yordan_aleksiev@abv.bg) The church is single-nave, single-apse, with a narthex, an entrance from the west and an additional entrance from the south. It is 13.70 m in length and 6.20 m in width. The wall is 90 cm in width and was built of stones bonded with mortar. The foundation of the wall lies down to 60 cm in depth. The façade was decorated with four-leaf terracotta appliques. The church has a relatively well preserved painted decoration. Part of the paintings were ‘al fresco’, but were finished ‘al secco’. The plinth consists of zigzag-like black and red lines against a white background. The preserved figures from the lower frieze are 1.60 – 1.70 m in height and are frontally standing. Saints (monks and warriors) are depicted. St. Joan Baptist is represented on the inner separating wall to the north of the entrance. The king, the queen and a saint-protector are depicted in the middle niche of the northern wall. Twenty-two graves were discovered: three inside the nave (preceding the building of the church), two inside the narthex (synchronous to the church) and 17 around the church (presumably dated after the mid 14th century). A gold-lace cloth, a copper finger-ring, three silver buttons and two silver earrings were found in grave No. 1 inside the narthex. A silver coin showing the Bulgarian king Ioan Alexander and his son Michael (minted in 1337 – 1350), and iron pendants and buckles, most likely from a belt, were found in grave No. 11 in the churchyard. Tin belt appliques and an iron buckle were found in grave No. 16. Twenty coins minted between 1215 and 1270 were found during the excavations. The church was built in the 1230s and existed until the mid 14th century.