heavy stone slates. The church was consecrated on the Annunciation – March 25, 1805. A stone plate built in on the left of the altar says that the church was rebuilt from its foundations after it was burned down by agrarian bandits. The biggest loss was that of the burned historic parchment manuscripts from the literary treasury. Pope Doino Gramatik had mentioned the names of 12 church-donors, one of whom was Stoyan Mihaylovski – the father of Ilarion Makareopolski. Today there is a collection of 340 old books in the book store-house. The church “St. Nikola” was decorated completely by the famous Elena icon-painters of those ages – David and Yyakov who were born in Bolertsi. They finished their work in 1817–1818. The wall-paintings are incredibly precious and were announced to be cultural monuments of national importance. Here are the icon of the saints Metodiy of Morav, Georgi Novi of Sofia, Sava of Serbia, and the icon of Kliment of Ohrid – whose icon is a very rare one both in Bulgaria and Macedonia, and that is why it is one of high artistic value. Highly valued are also the wooden iconostasis and the bishop's stall. A new chapel "The Assu of Holy Virgin" was built in 1800 with the permission of Rousse-Tarnovo governor Smail Aga. This chapel was remade into a steadier building in 1813. As the time passed, the wooden building ceased satisfying the needs of the town. The people of Elena decided to build a bigger church. They thought of demolishing the fortified wall “Kaleto” and using its stone materials. They decided to do so in order to prevent the fortress being settled by Turkish garrisons. The building of this church was the work of master Miho from Bolertsi – a hamlet near Elena. The whole building with its solid construction and the materials, the artistic execution of the details and especially the interior showed the increased self-confidence of the citizens, and the constructive mastery and courage of master Miho. He was a contemporary of Kolio Fitcheto, master Gencho Kanev, and he did not step back to their creativity, design and realisation. The construction was started in 1836, and finished in 1837, and the church was consecrated on August, 28. In 1861 when the church was repaired, a notice stating this was left on the western wall above the cornice. The bell tower is a separate building