There is a theory that Bulgarian emperor Michael Shishman was buried in the Church of St George after he perished in the Battle of Velbazhd in 1330. The battle was a Serbian victory over the Second Bulgarian Empire which paved the way for the short-lived Serbian dominance over the Balkans in the mid-14th century. However, scholar Bistra Nikolova entirely dismisses this theory as an "erroneous reference in [Bulgarian history] literature".