Zlatna Panega
The city is located on both banks of the river Zlatna Panega. In the past, people believed that water was healing and that is why today the old people tell many legends: many people from all over Bulgaria flocked to immerse themselves in the healing spring and get relief. Out of gratitude, the people built a temple to the god Asclepius – a god from ancient Greek mythology, a god-healer, patron of medicine. The river, which originates from the spring. People named it after the daughter of the god Asclepius-Panaka. Over the years, her name changed to Panega.
In the past, locals naively thought that Panega’s water came from Lake Goljuk in the Zlatitsa Balkans, from the Rila Mountains or even from Lake Doyran. Thus, was born the popular legend of the shepherd from the Rila Mountains, who hid his money in a hollow stick. One day when he took the sheep to a watering hole, he dropped her in one of the mountain lakes and the waters immediately swallowed her. Desperate, without money, he went begging from village to village in Bulgaria. One day he reached Zlatna Panega. In one of the mills on the riverbank he saw that they were supporting the door not with anything, but with his lost staff. The miller told him that he had found her dumped by Panega, and as it seemed very heavy to him, he assumed that he had taken her away. At this way the beggar shepherd found his wealth again. He gave from it to the miller too.