“Saint Nicholas the wonder – worker” church is the only monument of the Renaissance of national importance in Pleven. In the place of today’s church, in the XIIIth century, it was built a small chapel by the bargainers from Dubrovnik, who visited for many times Pleven.
At the end of the XIVth century, the Tatars and the Janissaries burned and robbed the city repeatedly. In the year 1699, Pleven with much effort managed to make a deal with the sultan who allowed the temple to be rebuilt and on the 18th of October 1834 it was redone. Therefore, the “Saint Nicholas” church became a center of the fight for the religion and for the national independence. Here it is found the refugee Sofronius Vratsa, persecuted by the Turks and by the Greeks.
The temple is a basilica which is a typical characteristic of our Renaissance. In the eastern part it is found the iconostasis made by the master Petru and with two apprentices from the Tryavna School. The iconostasis is a sculpture in wood, the throne and the pulpit of the bishop are made in the period 1843 – 1845. Valuable information about the paternity of the icons and of the iconostasis are received in the temple’s chronicle, which is found at the National Library “Saint Chiril and Metodiu” from Sophia. According to these reports, the small icons in most part, the work belongs to Dimitar Zograf, whose collections is one of the richest and includes 68 icons, and the rest are painted by the representatives of the Samokov School. On the wall, bolts and arches, for a better acoustics, there are enclosed a number of 462 clay vessels.