Abstract
<jats:p>The article examines the church of St “Petka” in the village of Dren (Radomir region) as a long-lasting spiritual, social and cultural center of the community. Drawing on Mircea Eli-ade’s notion of the church as “axis mundi” and Jan Assmann’s concept of cultural memory, the study argues that the temple functions as a “monument of the community” where religious practice, local history and collective identity intersect. Methodologically, the analysis com-bines architectural and art-historical observations with readings of written and oral sources (chronicles, local history notes, memoirs, interviews), interpreted through a cultural-anthropological, semiotic and micro-historical lens (Ginzburg). Particular attention is paid to the role of the miraculous spring, to the iconographic program of the Samokov icon-painting school, and to the figure of priest Mihail Hristov Popov, whose activities link church, school and community initiatives. Concepts such as Durkheim’s “religion as a social fact”, Geertz’s definition of religion as a symbolic system, Turner’s “communitas” and Castells’s “resistance identity” are used to show how the church space generates solidarity, voluntary engagement and symbolic autonomy. The article concludes that St Petka functions as a living locus of memory where past and present, sacred and secular, individual and communal are continuously mediated.</jats:p>