During some infrastructural development excavations in 2003-2004, architectonic remains with wall paintings and marble decorative elements were discovered in the area south of the St. Sophia church in the old city center of Ohrid. The archaeological excavations which followed in the limited area between the existing building of the church and private houses, revealed several stones, brick and marl mortar walls of a monumental building. Three burials were also found in the surrounding rubble, dug in from different levels suggesting different chronology. The excavations continued down to almost 4 m depth, where an elaborate floor of stone slabs and mosaic was reached. This floor is suggested to be the earliest construction phase of the building, either from a pre-Christian 3rd century basilica or an early Christian one. Based on the excavated artefact assemblage, two other construction phases were documented – one from the 9th and another from the 11th century, the latter being associated to the St. Sophia church still standing adjacent to the north. This seems to correlate to previous stratigraphic interpretations of early excavations on limited areas inside the St. Sophia church. One of the possible identifications of the monumental building is that it was part of the archepiscopal residential complex surrounding the St. Sophia cathedral.