EXPLORATIONS IN SOZOPOLIS (Tsonya Drazheva – archeo@burgasmuseums.bg) The southern fortification wall was 2.30 m wide and preserved up to 12.50 m in height. A section of the wall, 38.60 m long, was discovered. The wall was constructed of cut stones bonded with mortar with an emplectum and two construction periods were documented. The fortification wall was constructed in AD 500 – 525 and probably was functional until the middle of the 15th century. It served as a proteichisma of Sozopolis. An entrance was discovered in the right sector of the wall, flanked by two U-like fortification towers, 4 m long and 2.50 m wide, with preserved height of 12 m. The entrance was walled probably during the 12th century. The western U-like tower was 3 m long and the eastern U-like tower was 3.80 m long, while they were 3.60 m wide. The western tower was preserved at 9 m in height and the eastern one was preserved at 11.90 m in height. A church, 13.90 m long, 10 m wide and preserved up to 3.50 m in height, was explored at 8 m to the south of the fortification entrance. It was built of ashlars, smaller stones and reused marble architectural details bonded with mortar, with small bricks incorporated into the joints between the stones. The floor was paved with terracotta tiles. The plaster of the frescoes was preserved in the northern apse of the altar and fragmentary color frescoes were discovered fallen on the floor. The church was a three-naved basilica with an altar with three apses and a narthex with one entrance. It was built in the 10th century and was reconstructed in the 13th century. There was an open gallery in front of the entrance, which was reconstructed and converted into an exonarthex. Two lead seals of the 11th century, coins of the end of the 10th – 13th centuries and a set of exagia were found. After a fire, the church was reconstructed and converted into a cemetery chapel and during the end of the 14th – beginning of the 17th centuries its interior was used for family burials, while its central apse in the altar was transformed into an ossuary. Seventy burials were explored inside the church and in the adjacent cemetery.