The Church of St Petka Tarnovska

The Church of St Petka Tarnovska is an Orthodox church located in the Levski quarter of the town of Balchik, in Balchik Municipality, Dobrich Region. It is the most recently built Orthodox church in Balchik and the only one in the town designed by a professional architect — the Romanian architect Stefan Bals, who drew up the plans in the 1930s. Construction was begun in 1936–1938 by the Romanian authorities during the occupation of Southern Dobruja, under the direction of master builder Nikolay (Kolyu) Penchev from Dobrich. When Southern Dobruja was returned to Bulgaria in 1940, the construction was interrupted by the historical circumstances of the period. The unfinished church was taken over two years later by the priest Vasily Delev Demirov, and through the sustained efforts of Father Vasily Demirev and the church wardens, and through the faith of the local Christian community, the church was completed and consecrated on 14 November 1954 by the Metropolitan of Varna and Preslav Yosif. The church is dedicated to St Petka Tarnovska — the most beloved female saint of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, whose feast day falls on 14 October. St Petka Tarnovska (also known as St Paraskeva of Epivates or Petka Bulgarska) was a Bulgarian-born saint of the 11th century, born to Bulgarian parents in the town of Epivat in Thrace on the Sea of Marmara. From an early age she dedicated herself to prayer, fasting, and care for the poor, eventually withdrawing to a hermit's life in the desert near Constantinople. Her relics were brought to the capital of the Second Bulgarian Empire, Tarnovo, in 1238 at the order of Tsar Ivan Asen, and were thereafter transferred to Vidin, Belgrade, and finally to Iasi in northern Romania in 1641, where they reside to this day in the Metropolitan Cathedral, making Iasi the principal centre of pilgrimage to the saint. She is venerated as patron and protectress of Bulgaria and the Bulgarian state.