Elenska Basilica

The initially domeless basilica, which features thick walls and defensive towers, had a dome added in the mid-6th century, during the reign of Justinian I.

The Elensko area where the church is located (and which was the basis for its name) was known to have been inhabited in antiquity by a Thracian tribe, who around the 6th–5th century BC joined the Bessi state.

Another theory derives the name of the area from the Bulgarianized name of the Greeks, елини elini ("Hellenes"), explained by the church's construction in the early Byzantine period.

A 13th-century literary work in Middle Bulgarian, the Pirdop Acts of the Apostles, may have been authored there, as a legend says it was discovered in the church's ruins in the 19th century.

Archaeologist Petar Mutafchiev conducted excavations in 1913 and published his findings in the article The Elenska Basilica in the vicinity of Pirdop.