Church of St Nicholas, Sapareva Banya

Originally either the property of a local notable or attached to a larger church, it was constructed anytime from the 11th to the 14th century.

The priest believed that the stone, which reportedly had the date 1160 inscribed on it, was sent to the National Archaeological Museum in the capital Sofia.

A legend links the church to the name of an unidentified local feudal lord named Nikola (Nicholas) as his final resting place, though archaeologist Nikola Mavrodinov considers it more likely that it was possibly a chapel or a cemetery church attached to a larger place of worship.

While the Church of St Nicholas was not destroyed, its renovation was prohibited by the Ottomans, thus it gradually fell into ruin.

He references a story about a group of Circassians that were settled in Sapareva Banya on the order of the Ottoman authorities after the Crimean War (1853–1856).

It was enlisted as a monument of culture of national importance in 1968, with a publication in Bulgaria's newspaper of record, the State Gazette, issue 77.