Everywhere in Bulgaria, churches and monasteries solemnly celebrate this day, especially those that bear the name Nativity of the Virgin. Among them is the monastery loved by the Bansko residents, dedicated to the Mother of God - known as Paligodèn, shrouded in legends and omens from the dawn of Christianity.

"There are about 33 holy places near Bansko, which means that before the formation of today's town, its hamlets were scattered in different areas", explains priest Georgi. "The ancient Roman fortress Sitan Kale was uniting all settlements, as the word "sitan" probably comes from the word for citadel. This is also confirmed by the legend of the Nativity of the Virgin, a particularly bright ray in the area of ​​Paligodèn, located on the top of a hill, about 3 and a half kilometers southwest of the town of Bansko. Ever since antiquity it has been revered as particularly significant, and legend says that its first stone was laid around AD 59. We know that the apostle Paul came to preach in Macedonia in AD 52. We also know that he stayed to winter for two months in the ancient town of Nikopolis ad Nestum, 7 kilometers east of today's Gotse Delchev."

According to old residents of Bansko, Apostle Paul also came to the Razlog valley, and at the place where he preached in Bansko, a church dedicated to the supreme apostles Peter and Paul was built. According to Father Georgi, it is quite possible that one of the first to accept Christianity in the area, "after the apostle Paul's sermon, he sowed the seed of Christ's teaching" with the construction of the Paligodèn monastery, as the Banskalians call it, which was originally a small chapel . Towards the end of the 4th century, the Roman road Via Egnatia passed through the Razlog valley, which led from the Aegean Sea through the Rhodopes to the Thracian lowland and Philippopolis. It was about 100 - 200m below the church itself and it is considered that it was then that it was built in its full size. A functioning temple remained until the end of the 14th and the beginning of the 15th century, when it was incinerated, along with the Sitan Kale fortress, after the Ottoman invasion. That is probably where the name Paligodèn comes from - burnt during the day.

"The monastery remained in oblivion until the present day, until in 1935 an event shook Bansko and made the people of Bansko think about the holy place, as it was called", Father Georgi continues his story. "There was an old family in Bansko and the head of the family in 1934 plowed the meadow of Paligodèn. The warnings of his fellow citizens not to desecrate the holy place remained in vain and he plowed the meadow and planted it with wheat, but he was too happy with the harvest. The retribution for the sin was not late - in one year everyone in his family died, and the family no longer exists in Bansko. This incident led the local priest and the church trustees to the place in 1956, where they discovered the foundations of the old church, with church paraphernalia, to their great surprise."

Only in 1964 the monastery dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary was rebuilt as a single-nave single-apsed basilica, measuring 15 by 9 by 6 meters. In the following year, 1965, pious Orthodox Christians of Bansko donated funds for the finishing works.

"In the western part of the meadow, a two-story house with four rooms was built for the shelter of the worshipers. And since the monastery is very visited, it is planned to add to the building from both the southern and northern parts. There are very well-made plans during the 1960s and 1970s, Father Georgi notes.

Holiday services are held there, especially on the Ascension of the Holy Mother of God, and almost all pious Christians from Bansko and the surrounding area attend.

And the faith of the Banskalians is not only evidenced by the already restored 17 sanctuaries around the Razlog valley. "It was not for nothing that one of the old bishops called Bansko "God-protected", because throughout all the years - through Ottoman slavery and after that, during atheism, the faith did not break, for which we can thank both God and the priests before us, that manage to keep the faith. God grant that we also have this opportunity to continue these good Christian Orthodox values," says Father Georgi and wishes a bright holiday: "To all Christians, to Bulgarians and to all people on earth, because without God's support we will not exist even one day."

Thus, in the land sanctified by St. Apostle Paul and with the protection of the Mother of God, the Banskalians jealously guard their legacy.