Description
Seen here through an arch of the Old Stone Bridge, Bulgaria's Church of St Demetrius is proof you can't keep a good building down. The mediaeval Orthodox church in the city of Veliko Tarnovo was ruined by earthquakes and looted multiple times in its nine-century history, but was fully rebuilt after an especially strong quake in 1913 razed it. Said to be the site where leaders Peter and Asen declared independence from the Byzantine Empire circa 1185, the restored church stands as a symbol of Bulgarian pride here in the nation's historical capital.