The venerable sessile oak by the Nasalevtsi church – the guardian of the village and its people A venerable sessile oak tree, which is more than 600-year-old, grows by the outer wall of the local church of the "Nativity of Mary" in Nasalevtsi. The place is considered sacred. The proof is that there was a church here back in the period of the Second Bulgarian State (12th-14th century). Nativity of Mary Church was built in 1859. Since then people used to make annual sacrificial offerings to saints to pray for good health, protection from storms, snakes, attacks by invaders, and also for rain.