Church of Saints Peter and Paul, Orthodox church in Nikopol, Bulgaria.
The Church of Saints Peter and Paul is a partly ruined medieval Eastern Orthodox church beneath the northeastern part of Nikopol's former fortress. Its near-square nave measures 10 by 7 metres, with a single apse and a single nave; the tall octagonal dome survives, while the two-storey narthex and its two domes have collapsed. Walls mix rectangular stone blocks with two rows of red brick, and blind arches with brick and white stone decoration cover the facades.
The church was built in the 13th or 14th century, during the Second Bulgarian Empire, beneath the northeastern part of Nikopol's medieval fortress. Felix Kanitz first studied it in 1871, when it stood in the yard of a Turkish house and was no longer used for services. Karel Škorpil found the narthex already collapsed in 1904. It was declared a national antiquity in 1927.
Locals call the church "Manastircheto" (The Little Monastery), perhaps because it once belonged to a now-ruined medieval monastery. In 1871 Felix Kanitz found it long disused, standing in the yard of a Turkish house, and heard a tradition that it had been the cathedral church of Nikopol's Catholics (Paulicians).
The church stands beneath the northeastern part of Nikopol's medieval fortress, not in the town centre. The narthex is entirely ruined and the building is a preserved monument, not an active place of worship, so there are no services to attend. No archaeological excavations have been carried out around it.
Felix Kanitz, who first studied the church in 1871, heard a local tradition that it had once been the cathedral of Nikopol's Catholics (Paulicians); Bistra Nikolova treats the Catholic link as unproven. The building is a national monument of culture, listed in 1927.
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