Bulgarians in Hungary

Part of a series on
Bulgarians Българи
Culture
Literature Music Art Cinema Names Cuisine Dances Costume Sport Public holidays in Bulgaria
By country
Albania Australia Canada Croatia Czechoslovakia France Germany Greece Hungary Italy Kazakhstan Lebanon North Macedonia Romania Serbia Spain South America Brazil Turkey Ukraine Crimea United Kingdom United States
Subgroups
Anatolian Bulgarians Banat Bulgarians Bessarabian Bulgarians Dobrujan Bulgarians Macedonian Bulgarians Pomaks Șchei Shopi Thracian Bulgarians
Religion
Bulgarian Orthodox Church Islam Catholic Church Greek-Catholics Protestant denominations Armenians
Language
Bulgarian Dialects Balkan Banat Ruptsi Torlakian
Other
List of Bulgarians People of Bulgarian descent
v t e

Bulgarians (Hungarian: bolgárok) are one of the thirteen officially recognized ethnic minorities in Hungary (Bulgarian: Унгария, Ungaria; old name Маджарско, Madzharsko) since the Rights of National and Ethnic Minorities Act was enacted by the National Assembly of Hungary on 7 July 1993.^[1] They number 2,316 and amount to 0.02% of the country's total population according to the 2001 census,^[2] but are estimated between 2,000 and 7,000 according to different authors.^[3]

History

In the Early Middle Ages, much of modern Hungary was often under the rule of the First Bulgarian Empire. The popular Bulgarian ruler Krum may have been born in Pannonia,^[4] and Bulgarian dukes like Salan, Glad, Ahtum, Sermon and Menumorut are mentioned as the lords of Syrmia, Banat, Bačka and parts of Transylvania proper in the 9th-11th centuries according to the Gesta Hungarorum.

The northern Hungarian town of Szentendre and the surrounding villages were inhabited by Bulgarians since the Middle Ages. In the 18th century, Szentendre had a Bulgarian neighbourhood of settlers from Chiprovtsi and a "Chiprovtsi church", indicating refugees from the time of the Chiprovtsi Uprising. A village near Visegrád was called Bolgár falu ("Bulgarian village") in the 16th century; Bulgarian refugees fleeing the Ottoman rule are first mentioned as inhabitants of this area on 30 December 1428. Gradually, however, these Bulgarians were assimilated into the Magyar population.^[5]

A number of Roman Catholic Banat Bulgarians settled in what is today Hungary as a secondary migration,^[6] establishing an early and small Banat Bulgarian community in Hungary. In Bulgarian interwar publications, their number is rounded and possibly overestimated at 10,000.^[7]

However, the Bulgarian ethnic community is largely descended from gardeners and other professionals who migrated to Austria-Hungary in large groups in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries,^[6] prior to World War I.^[3] In 1857, Bulgarians in Pest-Pilis-Solt-Kiskun (not counting Pest, Buda and Kecskemét) numbered 2,815, and their population had not changed significantly in 1870.^[6]

The oldest Bulgarian organization in Hungary, the Association of Bulgarians in Hungary, was founded in 1914 on the initiative of Lazar Ivanov from Teteven. The Bulgarian Church Community was founded in 1916 and the first Bulgarian school in 1918.^[8] Since then, the Bulgarian community has diversified to a great extent.^[3]

The Bulgarian Orthodox church of Ss. Cyril and Methodius in Ferencváros, Budapest was constructed in 1932.^[9] A Bulgarian newspaper, Balgarski vesti, and a Bulgarian magazine, Hemus, are published by the Bulgarian community, as well as various books. There exist a number of folk dance groups, a theatre, several orchestras, a Bulgarian school for the native language and a Bulgarian-Hungarian secondary school for languages named after Hristo Botev.

• 

  The Bulgarian Orthodox Church of Saints Cyril and Methodius in Ferencváros, Budapest (Hungarian: Szent Cirill és Szent Metód Bolgár Pravoszláv templom)

• 

  The Hristo Botev Bulgarian–Hungarian secondary school in Budapest

• 

  The Bulgarian Orthodox Church of Saints Cyril and Methodius

Number and share

Censuses

Number of Bulgarians according to the census over the years by counties:^[10][11]

People

• Klára Dobrev, politician
• Balázs Nikolov, footballer

See also

• Bulgaria–Hungary relations

References

External links

• Peykovska P., Demographic Indicators of the Ethnic and Cultural Identity within the Bulgarian Minority in Hungary in the Late 20th Century
• Website of the Bulgarian community in Hungary (in Hungarian and Bulgarian)
• Bulgarian cultural forum (in Bulgarian and Hungarian)
• State Agency for Bulgarians Abroad: Hungary (in Bulgarian)
• Pejkovszka P., A budapesti bolgár közösség történelmi demográfiai jellemzői (in Hungarian)

This page was last edited on 20 November 2023, at 06:15