Its walls are built in the Byzantine cloisonné technique: courses of red brick framing blocks of pale stone, laid in patterns that change on every face of the building. The cross-in-square plan, the slender dome and the rounded apse make it a textbook example of Byzantine church architecture, on a scale small enough to take in at a glance.
Inside, fragments of the original wall paintings survive. The church sits within the historic centre of Berat, which UNESCO lists together with Gjirokastër as a World Heritage Site for its Ottoman-era townscape and its many churches and mosques.
A short walk down the cobbled lanes from the castle gate brings you to the church, and the terrace around it is one of the quietest viewpoints on the hill, with the river, the Mangalem quarter and Mount Tomorr spread out below.
