Relation Between Urban Physical Image Elements And Local Urban Folklore of Kudus City, Indonesia Angeline Basuki & Undi Gunawan Abstract This research is an exploration on the local urban folklore and its relation to the physical and spatial entities of the city. The study case is Kudus City, a small town in the Central Java, Indonesia. The research is questioning how the pattern of city’s physical elements compared to the pattern of its local folklore textual elements. From the folklore analysis, it is possible to map the historicity as well as the contemporary condition of the city. This research is started with the folklore textual analysis. Beneath every story there are the story itself and also narratives, which can be recognized as plot. In the first section of the research, it identified the narrative and applied structural analysis to the text. There are three main factors as parameters: actor-action-portion. Then, the paper explores the city by surveying the site. In this survey, the paper identifies the city’s physical and spatial elements such as areas, streets, buildings, squares, etc. These elements will be analyzed alongside the folklore textual structure by applying the same parameters. The research found some homographic similarity between the city elements (names) and folklore elements, proof that we could indirectly enjoy the local folklore by experiencing the city. From this research, there are possibilities to apply this formula to other case studies. Keywords: urban spatial structure, textual structure, folklore, Kudus City ***** Introduction The idea of doing this research came from Peter J. M. Nas’ writings about urban symbolism . Every city is a network of symbol bearers that represent the 1 city’s image. Nas classified those symbol bearers as material symbols, discursive symbols, iconic symbols and behavioral symbols. Material symbolism includes physical features of a city such as buildings, streets, houses, etc. that mostly related to architectural fields. Discursive symbolism is the less tangible signifiers that reflect urban images and narratives through poems, songs, folklores, urban legend, movies and even websites. Iconic symbolism consists individuals or groups of people who have become representatives for certain cities, such as heroes, saints,