Monastery of San Salvador de Villanueva was founded in the 10th century by Count Santo (Osorio Gutiérrez). This Benedictine monastery today houses the Museum of Religious Art. The whole complex has been declared a Property of Cultural Interest, and consists of an abbey and the church, as well as various chapels, a monastery, two cloisters and a courtyard. The church’s Baroque façade is particularly worth noting. It was renovated in 1732 by Casas y Novoa, the master architect behind the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela.
The Great Basilica of Pliska is an architectural complex in Pliska, the first capital of the First Bulgarian Empire, which includes the cathedral, an archbishop"s palace and a monastery. The basilica was constructed on the orders of the knyaz of Bulgaria, Boris I (r. 852–889), after his baptism in 864 and the resultant Christianization of Bulgaria. Completed around 875, the basilica was 102.5 metres long and 30 metres wide. The complex includes Great Basilica itself – a basilica used as the cathedral church – and the attached monastery and episcopal palace inhabited by Christian monks and the bishop of Pliska.
Pliska was the first capital of Bulgaria, and according to legend founded by Asparuh of Bulgaria in the late 7th century. The site was originally an encampment, with the first tent-shaped buildings at Pliska of uncertain date.