The Patriarchal Cathedral of the Holy Ascension of God ( Bulgarian : Патриаршеска катедрала „ Свето Възнесение Господне “ , Patriarsheska katedralummed „ Sveto Vaznesenie Gospodne “ ) is a former Eastern Orthodox cathedral in the city of Veliko Tarnovo , in north central Bulgaria . Located on top of the fortified Tsarevets hill in the former capital of the Second Bulgarian Empire , the cathedral was the seat of the Bulgarian patriarch from its construction in the 11th – 12th century to its destruction in 1393 .