Current name: Community center in the village of Petrlas
Original name: Community center in the village of Petrlas

City: Dimitrovgrad (SRB)
District: The district of Pirot, Republic of Serbia
Address: “the center of the village” in Petrlas, municipality of Dimitrovgrad

Year of construction: 1949
Designer: The name of the architect is not familiar, but it is known that the chef handyman was named Veka also known as “Brzi Veka”, and he came from the neighboring village of Krupac.
Client: Municipality of Dimitrovgrad
Architectural style: regional-eclectic

Visiting interior: yes

Community center in the village of Petrlas also known as “the cultural center” is located “in the centre of the village” at the cadastral plot No. 4186/1 CM Petrlas, Zabrdje region in the municipality of Dimitrovgrad. Petrlas is a livestock -agricultural settlement, compact type, located at 11 km from Dimitrovgrad. The building was contructed in the central part of the village, at the intersection of three rural roads, on a wide and accessible location.

The architectural design of this and almost all buildings of this kind is regional-eclectic, with rustic wall finishing and classical organization of space.

In terms of programming, the Community center has a spacious hall with a stage and ticket office, a reading room, a shop and the office of the agricultural community. These facilities are characterized by the absence of sanitary facilities, which is a clear indicator of the backwardness of the Yugoslav countryside, while at the same time it speaks of the priorities of the state, which first wants to deal with issues of mediation of its ideology, rather than with the issues of hygiene standards.

The floor plan of the building is a ground floor, i.e. G+0, leveled from the ground with a staircase with a different number of heights, depending on the level of the surrounding terrain, considering that the building has several entrances (for the agricultural community, for the store, entrance to the warehouse and another one for the cultural center).

The entrance to the “cultural center” is isolated and emphasized by a porch with four massive masonry pillars, and in the extension of the entrance part, there is a spacious hall with a raised stage. The roof is multi-pitched, covered with tiles. The crown of the building is finished with a profiled decorative strip.