Active Citizens in Garmen: Socializing Religious Cultural Heritage of Local Importance

The article aims at presenting the activities of the people of the municipality of Garmen, Southwest Bulgaria, related to the socialization of tangible immovable religious heritage of local importance and their vision for changing it into a tourist product. There is no specialized local policy regarding cultural heritage, but voluntary initiatives to restore Orthodox sites and the spaces around them involve people of different faiths. As a result of their civic activism, a collective sense of attachment to heritage is strengthened, which in turn becomes an important element of their regional identity. The results of an ethnological study conducted in April–May 2022 in the villages of Garmen, Dabnitsa and Skrebatno are presented. The data were collected through open-ended interviews with representatives of the municipality of Garmen and people who live near the cultural values and are committed to the cause of their restoration and socialization.