At 7 km east of the town of Gotse Delchev is the ancient Roman village of Nikopolis ad Nestum. In this southeastern part of Bulgaria, between the localities of Marchov Chiflik and Hisarlaka, in the southern part of the land of the village of Garmen, the remains of Nikopolis, which are about 16 centuries old, have been preserved.

In itself, Nicopolis ad Nestum is an extremely important archaeological monument. The entire open historical complex covers an area of ​​14 km. From here the spa village Ognyanovo is very close. To visit the ancient Roman settlement you will need only about 15 minutes by car.

Nicopolis ad Nestum is a priceless treasure because it is one of the few preserved ancient cities in Bulgaria and the only one in the Rhodopes from the period of Roman rule in the Balkans. Today it is declared an archaeological and architectural monument from antiquity and the Middle Ages.

Literally translated, Nikopolis ad Nestum means the city of victory, located on the river Mesta. Nicopolis ad Nestum was founded by the Roman emperor Trajan I and has been inhabited for more than 14 centuries, with the most intense life in the late antiquity (4th-6th centuries).

Nicopolis ad Nestum was founded in 106 on the site of the Thracian settlement of Alexandroupolis by the Roman emperor Trajan, in honor of his victory over the Dacians. The village is located on the road connecting the Aegean coast with the main highway Via Egnatia through the Rhodopes, the Thracian lowlands and Philippopolis (today's Plovdiv). As a key crossroads, its strategic location helped to form it as a center of economic, political and cultural importance in the period of its heyday in the period 2 - 6 century.

Coins were minted in Nicopolis ad Nestum from the time of Emperor Commodus (180-192) to the reign of Emperor Caracalla (211-217). The found coins and votive reliefs testify to the worship of the deities - Zeus, Pluto, Hermes, the Thracian horseman, Asclepius and Hygia, as well as the river god Mesta and the worshiped by the Thracians Ares and Dionysus.

At the end of the 6th century, Slavs and Avars attacked Nikopolis ad Nestum and destroyed it. In the 9th - 10th century the city was revived under the name of Nikopol and lasted until the 13th century, when it was again destroyed during the Crusades. During the Late Middle Ages there was a Bulgarian settlement in part of the place, and in the southeastern part of the fortified town - a Turkish farm. During the Ottoman rule the town moved a few kilometers to the west and its name is preserved in the form Nevrokop (today's Gotse Delchev).

During the excavations of Nikopolis ad Nestum, 280 m of fortress walls, foundations of public and religious buildings, tombs were cleared. Fragments of a votive relief of the Thracian horseman, a statue of Hermes, an early Christian tombstone, over 95 gold and about 22 other coins, glass, bronze and ceramic vessels, a gold ring and others were found. Near the fortified town were found 2 early Christian basilicas from the 4th century.