The building, placed under the management of the National Historical Museum (Bulgaria), was fully reopened to the public by Culture Minister Stefan Danailov on October 2, 2008.

They form a second layer over the paintings from earlier centuries and represent one of the most complete and well-preserved monuments of medieval art in the Balkans.

Those frescoes were painted over the earlier layer by a team of unknown artists, who also decorated the two floors of the building commissioned by Sebastocrator Kaloyan.

The Boyana Church owes its world fame above all to the frescoes from 1259, which demonstrate the exceptional achievements of medieval Bulgarian culture.

The frescoes follow the canon of icon-painting established by the Seventh Ecumenical Council held in Nicaea in 787.

The drum below shows a host of angels, with the Four Evangelists – Matthew, Mark, Luke and John – portrayed in the pendentives.

Below are four church fathers: St. Gregory the Theologian, Basil the Great, John Chrysostom and Patriarch Germanus.

The unknown artists included elements of contemporary life in those scenes, and many of the figures are quite realistic – especially their countenances.

The expressive realistic portraits of the donors Sebastocrator Kaloyan and his wife Dessislava, and of the Bulgarian Tsar Constantine Asen Tikh and Tsaritsa Irina – painted with precision, extraordinary skill and feeling – are among the oldest portraits of figures from Bulgarian history.

According to many leading experts,[citation needed] the world famous frescoes in the Boyana Church played an important role in the development of mediaeval Bulgarian and European painting.

[2] National History Museum director Bozhidar Dimitrov stated: "The renovation revealed a rare inscription under a layer of plaster on one of the church walls: 'I, Vasiliy inscribed'.

Restorator Grigoriy Grigorov stated "The Christian Orthodox religion forbids the painter from manifesting himself, as in the eyes of the priests it is God who guides his hand.