Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles
available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. The Church of St
Nicholas is a partially preserved medieval Eastern Orthodox church in
the town of Melnik in Blagoevgrad Province, southwestern Bulgaria.
Dating to the late 12th century, it stands on top of an ancient Thracian
sanctuary and a 5th-century basilica. In the Middle Ages, the church
served as the cathedral of Melnik's bishop. The interior of the church
features frescoes of rarely depicted scenes, as well as a 13th-century
inscription. In translation, it reads: "Prayer of God's slave sebastos
Vladimir, brother of a single womb of the sebastos of the Franks" or
"... of sebastos Frank", the former considered more likely. Its bell
tower used to house one of the oldest extant church bells in Europe,
discovered by archaeologists in the 2000s.
