ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS IN MELNIK (Violeta Nesheva – violeta_nesheva@mail.bg, Tsvetana Komitova) Archaeological explorations of St. Peter and St. Paul Church, which functioned until the 1960s, were carried out. During the 1970s, a Mediaeval necropolis around the church was documented and pottery of the 14th century was found. The church is a three-nave pseudo-basilica. Two rows of three columns each divided the interior. There was a gallery above the narthex. There was a wooden bishop’s throne of 1893, according to a Greek inscription, inside the church. There were frescoes from the Revival period painted in the altar. There were frescoes on the timber ceiling, too. The floor was paved with marble slabs and bricks. Some of them were from the Antiquity and the Middle Ages and were reused. According to a Greek building inscription on a marble plate above the entrance, the church was restored in 1840 by Dionysius III, the Metropolitan of Melnik. The restored church was built over the foundations of an earlier church, which were incorporated in the new building. The earlier church was single-nave with one apse and a narthex. There was a buttress in its southeastern corner. The foundations of the church were built of boulders bonded with mortar: a structure typical for the Melnik architecture during the 12th – 14th centuries. The altar was separated from the nave by means of an altar screen built of stones. The interior of the church was decorated with frescoes and some fragments were discovered. The frescoes dated to the beginning of the 13th century. Most probably, the church was built during the second half of the 12th or the beginning of the 13th century. In that period Melnik became a prosperous town and during the rule of Despot Alexii Slav (1207 – 1230) the local Episcopate developed into a Diocese of Melnik and Serrai. An earlier building of the 6th century AD was documented under the foundations of the church.