In the Middle Ages it was known as the Church of St. Nikola, a Bulgarian monument[1][2] dating from the beginning of the rule of Tsar Ivan Alexander in the 1330s.

It was built on an elevated plateau above the river coast of Nišava, near Staničenje village and the confluence of Temštica, near the main road from Sofia to Niš.

The fresco epitaph which is written on the west wall above the entrance notes that Arsenije, Jefimija, Konstantin and some other members painted and built the church between 1331 and 1332 in the time of Bulgarian Emperor Ivan Alexander (bulg.

Some of the people mentioned on the fresco epitaph were already dead by the time the church was completed, so construction was finished by their descendants.

And it was like this: one year, just for Annunciation, in the time when the priests organized a Divine Liturgy, in the church and the churchyard were many people.

In that year, 1829, the people of Staničenje get one priest and they ask the landowner to allow them to recover back the church so it can serve its purpose.

The landowner accommodates them under the condition that they must give him, in the name of a church holiday, 26th July, a sterile sheep every year.

The Circassians plundered, looted, and desecrated all of Staničenje, also burning all the liturgical books in the Church of St. Petka.

[citation needed] In the 1970s, Radivoje Ljubinković carried out archeological research, including interviewing the oldest inhabitants of the village.

From this, he learned that the church had not been significantly rebuilt or enlarged in the previous century (meaning after the liberation in 1877), and the final form was acquired during Turkish rule.

[6] The elevated plateau above the coast of the Nišava river and its local microenvironment, where the church is located, represents a dominant strategic position.

Soil composition on which church is built consist of fluvial sediments: earth with sand, fine gravel, and many of pebbles of various sizes.

Through archeological research, it was found that the oldest cultural layer, formed at the site, was from the time when the church was constructed.

The next two phases of extensions and upgrades can be reliably dated to the 18th century but before 1796, when the old church in Staničenje was severely damaged.

The architrave lintel consists of a series of beams of square cross sections and in that frame there was once a wooden structure with double-winged doors.

[7] Shortly after the church was built, a narthex was added, which had a length of 4 meters of internal space, but because of deviation of the northern wall, its width is unequal.

A group of painters carried out the whole gallery of portraits on the western part of the nave, composed of ten figures.

The founder's inscription was written on the inner western wall of the nave, above the entrance to the church, covering the entire width of the lintel.

The text begins with the trinity invocation in Church Slavonic language: “Izvolenijem Otca I savršenijem Sina I sapospešenijem”, common to founding inscriptions of Serbs and Bulgarians in the Middle Ages.

At the very beginning, the first word was preceded by a small painted cross, partially preserved (Latin invocatio symbolica), which usually began and ended inscriptions of this type in the Middle Ages.

The figure of Emperor Constantine is recognizable as the person locking the wrongfully accused dukes in the dungeon, as is noted in written sources of St.

The first legend dates back to 1398, and relates that Princess Milica, engaging in diplomatic activities, had gone with Jefimija to Sultan Bayezid to represent the interests of Stephen Uroš IV Dušan of Serbia that year.

The second legend states that on 25 March 1796, according to the old calendar of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, there was a crowd of people at the Church of St. Petka and its surrounding churchyard.

Where the head of the deceased used to be, a third of a thin silver penny was laid on a stone slab, the same as in the grave of the young noblewoman.

On the remains of a deceased young male were found parts of a robe with 27 silver buttons with gold embroidered work.

[14] Една от последните си статии той посвещава на специфичната иконография на ктиторските портрети в българската църква "Свети Никола" в Станичене от XIV век... Oni imaju na isti način ukrštene ruke na grudima kao što ih drže umrla lica sa sto šezdeset godina starijeg živopisa u bugarskom Staničenju (the second sentence is a quote by Serbian scientist V. Djurić)На духовним поистовећењима заснивала су се и иконографска, коjа су се наjjасниjе испољила у бугарским споменицима Берендеу и Станичењу.ва дни благовернаго цара .