ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXCAVATIONS NEAR THE VILLAGE OF DREN (Milen Kamarev – mkamarev@abv.bg, Damyan Damyanov) The first description of St. Mary Monastery was given in 1910. The monastery had functioned until the middle of the 19th century. Boys from the village of Dren had been educated for priests at the monastery school. The monastery was destroyed by a landslide. The church had three conchs, measured c. 8.90 m by 4.50 m and was constructed of roughly cut stones bonded with mortar. Its walls were 60 – 80 cm wide and were preserved up to 2.40 m in height. Parts of the floor of the church paved with tiles were preserved at the apse and the northern conch. Parts of the frescoes (a frieze, 50 cm in height) were preserved on the walls at the northern conch and the apse. Judging from the frescoes, the church dated to the middle of the 16th century. Fragments from burned wooden beams were documented at the northern conch. The finds included tiles and iron nails from the roofing construction, pierced Ottoman silver coins, beads, buttons, belt buckles, etc. A shelter was constructed over the ruins of the church at the end of the 19th – beginning of the 20th century. Grave No. 1 situated to the east from the apse was explored. The grave was faced with vertical stone slabs. A bronze earring from the Second Bulgarian Kingdom or from the Ottoman period was found. A wall in rubble masonry with a bonding medium of mud and a water conduit of terracotta pipes were discovered to the north – northeast from the church. A marble capital of the 5th – 6th century AD was documented. Probably, it was reused in the church and nowadays it serves during the congregations on the Assumption of St. Mary.