Rotunda of St George (Serdica Baths)

About

Constantine's building program raised this domed red-brick hall as part of a Roman bath complex in the early 4th century, making it the oldest standing building in Sofia today. The cylindrical drum measures 9.75 meters across at its base, its brick walls 1.4 meters thick, and the dome climbs nearly 13.7 meters overhead. It later hosted sessions of the Council of Serdica in 343 CE after conversion to a church. Nothing about it predates Hadrian's accession, let alone Trajan's death in 117 CE.

In ancient writing

• Bogdan Filov, Софийската църква „Св. Георги" (The Sofia Church of St. George) Bulgarian Archaeological Institute, 1933; further study 1939-1940

  The excavation studies that first documented the hypocaust and brick construction identifying the Rotunda's original phase as a Roman bath building of the early 4th century, under Constantine, well after the 117 CE snapshot.

Sources

• https://www.thebyzantinelegacy.com/rotunda-serdica
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_Saint_George,_Sofia
• https://visitbulgaria.com/the-rotunda-st-george-sofia/

Nearby

Serdica Public Baths (St Nedelya Square)

82 m

Temple of Heracles (Serdica)

71 m

Diagonal Road through Serdica

100 m

First City Wall of Serdica

172 m

Amphitheatre of Serdica

443 m

Almus

126 km