Church of St. Demetrius, village of Neykovtsi

Overview

The construction of the church was planned even before the Liberation. Preparations for the construction have begun. At the same time, the construction of a church in Plachkovtsi was being prepared. There was a big dispute over where to build it. Neykovchani started first. The church of St. Demetrius was built on part of the school yard and part of the old cemetery. The initiators were Mityo Yaloviya, Dragan Momchev, Bonyo Stoyanov, Ivan Damyanov, Tsanyo Cherkovnikov, Hadji Hristo, Georgi Koychev, Gencho Ivanov, Kolyo Ganev and others. The stones for the construction were extracted from the village of Kolyo Ganev and from Popskoto in the village of Radevtsi. And the roof tiles from the Kamenarna area in the Balkans. The carvings were made by Tsanyo Nenkov - Marangoza from the village of Radevtsi, father of the writer Nikolay Marangozov. The painting of the icons was done by Ikonomov from Tryavna.
Initially, the bell tower's eyelid was beaten with a hammer. Around 1930 a bell was bought and placed. In 1909 a large city lantern was made in front of the church, which was lit every night and lit until morning.
The Church of St. Demetrius was often visited by the Metropolitans of Tarnovo. It was consecrated on April 12, 1883 by Metropolitan Clement of Tarnovo.
The construction of the church is entirely from donations, without the participation of the state as the biggest donor was Dragan Momchev from Okolite, who donated one of the largest icons to the altar, a large iconostasis, 100 golden Turkish lira and worked continuously until the construction of. the temple.
The first priest was priest Ivancho from Tryavna. After him came priest Petar Lupanov from the village of Kmetovtsi, then priest Nikola Kostantinov became a priest. Priest Mihail / Macedonian / from Nevrokop also serves here. In 1923 Konstantin Tachkov came from the village of Hotnitsa and remained a priest until his death in 1972. Since then, the church of St. Demetrius has been closed. For the next decades, it did not work and was not maintained. It began to crumble and much of the church inventory disappeared. Thanks to the initiative and thrift of Neykovchani, today it can reopen.