Today’s church was built on the foundations of the older cathedral, which was destroyed in the sixth century in the invasion of the Slavs and Avars. It was erected during the First Bulgarian Empire, after the spread of Christianity . It was rebuilt in the last decade of the 10th century as a patriarchal cathedral in the form of a basilica after the transfer of the Bulgarian capital to Ohrid. During the reign of Emperor Samuel, some sources are reporting that the church was the seat of the Bulgarian Patriarchate.