It lies 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) southwest of Pazardzhik, at the northern foot of the Karkaria ridge of the western Rhodope Mountains, some 370 metres (1,210 ft) above sea level.

[1][2] Besides the medieval but inactive St Demetrius, there are two other Bulgarian Orthodox churches in Patalenitsa.

A second explanation derives the name from the village of Patele in Aegean Macedonia (today Agios Panteleimonas, Florina regional unit, Greece), from which people settled in Patalenitsa in the 18th century.

Another possibility is a link to the Bulgarian word pat (път, "road"), due to Patalenitsa's position on a crossroad.

[1] The village has its own village hall, the present building of which dates to 1970, a cultural centre (chitalishte) established in 1909, and a monument to the locals who perished as Bulgarian Army soldiers in the Balkan Wars and World War I.