St. Prophet Elijah

The church “St. Prophet Elijah” in the village of Popchevo was build during 1864 and 1865 and its bell tower was constructed in 1880. There is a magnificent fresco painting in the church, but only partly preserved. It depicts the four Evangelists framed in medallions over the pillars- Matthew, Luke, Mark and John. The iconostasis was painted by two painters- one of them was Lazar Argirov from Melnik. The church has a breath-taking iconostasis displaying the icons of St. Nedela, Michail Archangel on the left door of the iconostasis, St. Elijah- the protector of the church, the Holy Mother, the Royal gates of 1864, Jesus Christ, John the Baptist, St. Nicholas and St. Athanasius. The Greek inscriptions on the icons in the second row of the iconostasis have been removed and replaced with Slavonic signatures. At the top of the iconostasis there is a large carved cross. The ceiling depicts Christ Pantocrator, and the banner depicts the Crucifixion of Christ most probably painted by Grigorij Pecanov.