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The Church of Saints Peter and Paul is a medieval Eastern Orthodox temple. It was built in the 13th century, during the golden era of Veliko Tarnovo, the former capital of the Second Bulgarian Kingdom. The church lies at the foot of Tsarevets (hill of the kings). The church is dedicated to the Apostles Saint Peter and Saint Paul. It has a cross-domed design and a single apse. Two rows of columns divide the prayer hall into three naves. The columns' capitals are decorated with plastic carving and tracery. The church has a high, massive iconostasis. Three layers of frescoes inside the church have been preserved to this day. The earliest layer consists of three images of the martyrs of Edessa in the western arch dating to the mid-13th century. The second layer is the images in the narthex; it is stylistically influenced by the Italo-Cretan school from the time of the Council of Florence in the 1430s. The local bishop Ignatius took part in the council and may have propagated the idea of ecumenism. The inscriptions of the second layer are in Bulgarian and Greek. The latest layer of frescoes is that of the images in the southern gallery from the 16th century.

According to the 14th-century account of Patriarch Evtimiy, the church and the surrounding monastery were built on the order of Queen Anna, Swife of Tsar Ivan Asen II (ruled 1218–1241). After the Fall of Tarnovo to the Ottomans in 1393, the church became the seat of the Bulgarian Patriarchate for a brief period. It continued to be a metropolitan bishop's residence of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople during the Ottoman rule. The bishop Hilarion of Crete was buried there and his tombstone has been preserved.

The Eastern Orthodox Church regards Apostle Peter, together with Apostle Paul, as "Preeminent Apostles". Eastern and Oriental Orthodox do not recognize the Bishop of Rome as the successor of St. Peter but the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople sends a delegation each year to Rome to participate in the celebration of the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul. In recent decades, the feast of Saints Peter and Paul, along with that of Saint Andrew, has been of importance to the modern ecumenical movements an occasion on which the Pope and the Patriarch of Constantinople have officiated at services designed to bring their two churches closer to inter-communion. This was especially the case during the pontificate of St Pope John Paul II, as reflected in his encyclical Ut Unum Sint.

The temple holiday in the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul. It is observed on 29 June in honour of the martyrdom of the Preeminent Apostles. Two weeks before the holiday,a religious fast is prescribed. An all-Night Vigil is observed on the eve of the feast, and the Divine Liturgy on the morning.

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