Ottoman society had long been depicted as a society regulated from above through the mediation of autonomous organizations. Guilds, religious bodies, villages and tribes were all responsible for their followers' behavior and for the fulfillment of various duties enforced upon the reaya. Yet, the Ottoman city also encompassed communal associations that were the result of initiative from below. The neighborhood (mahalle) can be regarded as one such grouping: it did not receive formal recognition (with exception of blood payments) or assignments, but its members used it as a means to enforce security and maintain local and communal infrastructure. Cohesion among its members was shaped and maintained by the symbolic position of the neighborhood place of worship (mosque, church or synagogue). These religious establishments were the base of molding the inhabitants' distinct identity and affiliation. In addition, these sacred sites were the places where most of community's life was conducted. While mixed neighborhoods existed in Ottoman cities, the significance of the local religious institutions perpetuated the religious division into distinguished communities. In this paper I am using the records (sicil) of the kadi's court to present and to analyze the prevailing position of the neighborhood places of worship as the center of communal activity, as well as the symbol of collective identity, in the Ottoman city. My main case study is eighteenth-century Ottoman Salonica.