decoration The Church of St John the Baptist is relatively small, measuring or , with a height of around . In terms of design, it follows the Byzantine cross-in-square style. The church lacks a narthex and features a single triangular apse with three small windows in its eastern part. The wall which carries the iconostasis clearly divides the interior into a cella and an altar. The altar includes a prothesis and a diaconicon, which are housed in bays in the east wall. The church was built out of interchanging rows of stones and brickwork, without any ceramic facing. Blind arches form an important part of the church's exterior decoration: there are five each on the north and south walls, with an additional three on the west wall. The walls are around thick. In its architecture, the church closely resembles other medieval religious buildings in its close surroundings, most notably the Church of the Holy Mother of God in Asen's Fortress south of Asenovgrad and the ossuary of the Bachkovo Monastery. However, the Church of St John the Baptist is unique in that it is the only one of the three to feature arrowslits. Six arrowslits on the north wall enabled the church to be quickly converted into a defensive tower. Most of the surviving frescoes on the church's interior walls date from the 18th century. These include images of the Mother of God, Jesus Christ and John the Baptist, all painted as part of the church's first reconstruction. However, restoration works carried out in the 2000s have uncovered 14th-century murals depicting the meeting of Elizabeth and Mary as well as John the Baptist. References External links Blog post about the Church of St John the Baptist in Asenovgrad with a rich photo gallery 12th-century Eastern Orthodox church buildings Asenovgrad Churches in Bulgaria Buildings and structures in Plovdiv Province Byzantine architecture in Bulgaria Medieval Bulgarian Orthodox church buildings