Talk:Church of St Demetrius, Patalenitsa

Enjoyable
What an interesting, well written article!

I would like to know:
 * What was the name of the church before it was rededicated to St Demetrius? Was this present church originally dedicated to St Pantaleon like the first one?
 * If this is indeed the second church on the site, is there any indication of the date of the earlier church? Are there archaeological remains?

Amandajm (talk) 01:25, 3 October 2010 (UTC)
 * Thank you very much for the interest! Unfortunately, there's little I can tell you that would answer your questions. Apparently, there are no clues as to what the previous name of the church would have been, even Zahariev in his 19th-century book specifically says that. Indeed, one plausible guess would be that it continued the naming tradition of St Pantaleon from the earlier church. As for the Church of St Pantaleon, there's nothing on its dating in Zahariev, who as far as I know is the only one to write of it. He does say, though, that the St Pantaleon was previously an Ancient Greek sanctuary of Asclepius and he makes that assumption based on archaeological remains. I've added that bit to the article. However, remember to take his writings with a grain of salt, as enthusiastic as he was, he was after all just a 19th-century amateur historian and patriot :)
 * I've written a few other articles on medieval Bulgarian churches in the last few days, if you're interested in that topic you might want to read Church of Saints Peter and Paul, Nikopol and Church of St Nicholas, Sapareva Banya, which are rather similar to this one. There's more to come! :) Best,  — Toдor Boжinov — 18:05, 3 October 2010 (UTC)