Czechs and Slovaks in Bulgaria
Encyclopedia
Czechs and Slovaks
are a minority ethnic group
in Bulgaria
(Czech
and ). According to the 2001 census, Czechs number only 316 and the number of Slovaks is even smaller, but historically, their population has been considerably larger.
in 1878, a large number of Czechs and Slovaks arrived in the country from Austria-Hungary
to foster its cultural and economic development. These included many intellectuals and entrepreneurs, such as the historian Konstantin Josef Jireček
(Minister of Education 1881–1882), the painters Ivan Mrkvička
and Jaroslav Věšín
, the archaeologists Karel Škorpil
and Hermann Škorpil
, the engineer and entrepreneur Jiří Prošek and the Prošek family (who built Lavov most
and Orlov most
and founded the Sofia brewery), Václav Dobruský
(first director of the National Archaeological Museum
), the brewer Franz Milde (founder of the Shumen brewery
), the architects Josef Schnitter
(long-time chief architect of Plovdiv
), Antonín Kolář (first chief architect of Sofia) and Lubor Bajer (who designed Stara Zagora
's modern street network), and many others.
Besides urban emigration, the Law for the settlement of the desolated lands of 1880 attracted many ethnic Czech and Slovak colonists, mostly Protestants
from the regions of the Romania
n Banat
(particularly Sfânta Elena and Nădlac
) and modern Vojvodina
, Serbia
. The most notable site of the rural Czech colony in Bulgaria was the village of Voyvodovo, Vratsa Province
, founded by Czech colonists in 1900 and reaching a population of 800 (of which over 600 Czechs, the rest Slovaks, Banat Bulgarians
and Banat Swabians
) in the 1930s. Other places where Czechs and Slovaks settled were the town of Gorna Oryahovitsa
and the villages of Belintsi and Podayva, Razgrad Province
, with a significant Slovak community also present in Pleven Province
(Gorna Mitropolia, Podem
, Brashlyanitsa). A member of Bulgaria's Slovak community, Ďuro Mikoláš of Gorna Mitropolia, was an orderly (batman) to Tsar
Ferdinand I of Bulgaria
.
In Podem (old name Martvitsa or Slovak Mŕtvica), for example, the Slovaks arrived in 1884 from the southern Kingdom of Hungary
and numbered 210 by 1910; they lived in a separate Slovak neighbourhood with characteristic Slovak houses (white, elongated and with steep roofs) and built their Evangelist church in 1934.
Between 1948 and 1950, over 2,000 Czechs and Slovaks from Sofia
and the aforementioned localities responded to the call of the government of Czechoslovakia
and returned to their native land to populate areas deserted in World War II
. Only around 5% of their peak number, mostly people who had married local Bulgarians, remained.
Slovaks
The Slovaks, Slovak people, or Slovakians are a West Slavic people that primarily inhabit Slovakia and speak the Slovak language, which is closely related to the Czech language.Most Slovaks today live within the borders of the independent Slovakia...
are a minority ethnic group
Ethnic group
An ethnic group is a group of people whose members identify with each other, through a common heritage, often consisting of a common language, a common culture and/or an ideology that stresses common ancestry or endogamy...
in Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
(Czech
Czech language
Czech is a West Slavic language with about 12 million native speakers; it is the majority language in the Czech Republic and spoken by Czechs worldwide. The language was known as Bohemian in English until the late 19th century...
and ). According to the 2001 census, Czechs number only 316 and the number of Slovaks is even smaller, but historically, their population has been considerably larger.
History
Following the Liberation of BulgariaLiberation of Bulgaria
In Bulgarian historiography, the term Liberation of Bulgaria is used to denote the events of the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78 that led to the re-establishment of Bulgarian state with the Treaty of San Stefano of March 3, 1878, after the complete conquest of the Second Bulgarian Empire, which...
in 1878, a large number of Czechs and Slovaks arrived in the country from Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...
to foster its cultural and economic development. These included many intellectuals and entrepreneurs, such as the historian Konstantin Josef Jireček
Konstantin Josef Jirecek
Konstantin Josef Jireček , son of Josef Jireček, was a Czech historian, diplomat and slavist.He entered the Bulgarian service in 1879, and in 1881 became minister of education at Sofia...
(Minister of Education 1881–1882), the painters Ivan Mrkvička
Ivan Mrkvicka
Ivan Mrkvička was a Czech-born painter and an active contributor to the artistic life of newly-liberated Bulgaria in the late 19th and early 20th century...
and Jaroslav Věšín
Jaroslav Vešín
Jaroslav František Julius Věšín was a Czech painter who mainly worked in Bulgaria and who was noted as a master of genre painting. The realistic depiction of battle scenes from the First Balkan War are the subject of a substantial part of his work.Věšín was born in the town of Vraný in what is...
, the archaeologists Karel Škorpil
Karel Škorpil
Karel Václav Škorpil was a Czech-Bulgarian archaeologist and museum worker credited along with his brother Hermann with the establishment of those two disciplines in Bulgaria....
and Hermann Škorpil
Hermann Škorpil
Václav Hermengild Škorpil was a Czech-Bulgarian archaeologist and museum worker credited along with his brother Karel with the establishment of those two disciplines in Bulgaria, as well as a geologist, botanist, architect and librarian....
, the engineer and entrepreneur Jiří Prošek and the Prošek family (who built Lavov most
Lavov most
Lions' Bridge is a bridge over the Vladaya River in the centre of Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, built 1889-1891 by Czech architect Václav Prošek, his brother Jozef and his cousins Bohdan and Jiří...
and Orlov most
Orlov most
Eagles' Bridge is a bridge over the Perlovska River in the centre of Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria. It gives the name to the important and busy juncture at which it is located...
and founded the Sofia brewery), Václav Dobruský
Václav Dobruský
Václav Dobruský was a Czech archaeologist, epigrapher and numismatist who was mostly active in Bulgaria. The first director of the National Archaeological Museum of Bulgaria from 1893 to 1910, he is regarded as one of the founding fathers of archaeology in that country.-Biography:Dobruský was born...
(first director of the National Archaeological Museum
National Archaeological Museum (Bulgaria)
The National Archaeological Museum is an archaeological museum in the centre of Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria. It occupies the building of the largest and oldest former Ottoman mosque in the city, Büyük camii , built from stone around 1474 under Mehmed II...
), the brewer Franz Milde (founder of the Shumen brewery
Shumensko
Shumensko or Shumensko pivo is a Bulgarian beer company based in Shumen. Since 2002, it has been owned by Carlsberg. The brewery was founded in 1882 by merchants from Shumen and the Czech master brewer Franz Milde, who arrived in September and founded the Bulgarian Brewing Association on 26...
), the architects Josef Schnitter
Josef Schnitter
Josef Schnitter was a Czech–Bulgarian architect, engineer and geodesist credited with shaping the modern appearance of Plovdiv, Bulgaria's second-largest city....
(long-time chief architect of Plovdiv
Plovdiv
Plovdiv is the second-largest city in Bulgaria after Sofia with a population of 338,153 inhabitants according to Census 2011. Plovdiv's history spans some 6,000 years, with traces of a Neolithic settlement dating to roughly 4000 BC; it is one of the oldest cities in Europe...
), Antonín Kolář (first chief architect of Sofia) and Lubor Bajer (who designed Stara Zagora
Stara Zagora
Stara Zagora is the sixth largest city in Bulgaria, and a nationally important economic center. Located in Southern Bulgaria, it is the administrative capital of the homonymous Stara Zagora Province...
's modern street network), and many others.
Besides urban emigration, the Law for the settlement of the desolated lands of 1880 attracted many ethnic Czech and Slovak colonists, mostly Protestants
Protestantism
Protestantism is one of the three major groupings within Christianity. It is a movement that began in Germany in the early 16th century as a reaction against medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, especially in regards to salvation, justification, and ecclesiology.The doctrines of the...
from the regions of the Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
n Banat
Banat
The Banat is a geographical and historical region in Central Europe currently divided between three countries: the eastern part lies in western Romania , the western part in northeastern Serbia , and a small...
(particularly Sfânta Elena and Nădlac
Nadlac
Nădlac is a town in western Romania, Arad County. A former part of the town lies across the border with Hungary; this village is called Nagylak. An international border town, Nădlac is the main border crossing into western Romania from Hungary. It is also a centre of the Lutheran Slovakian...
) and modern Vojvodina
Vojvodina
Vojvodina, officially called Autonomous Province of Vojvodina is an autonomous province of Serbia. Its capital and largest city is Novi Sad...
, Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
. The most notable site of the rural Czech colony in Bulgaria was the village of Voyvodovo, Vratsa Province
Voyvodovo, Vratsa Province
Voyvodovo is a village in Miziya municipality, Vratsa Province, Bulgaria, at . It was founded in 1900, mostly by Evangelist Czechs, but also by Slovaks, Banat Swabians and Banat Bulgarians, all settlers from the region of Banat, then in Austria-Hungary....
, founded by Czech colonists in 1900 and reaching a population of 800 (of which over 600 Czechs, the rest Slovaks, Banat Bulgarians
Banat Bulgarians
The Banat Bulgarians are a distinct Bulgarian minority group which settled in the 18th century in the region of the Banat, which was then ruled by the Habsburgs and after World War I was divided between Romania, Serbia, and Hungary...
and Banat Swabians
Banat Swabians
The Banat Swabians are an ethnic German population in Southeast Europe, part of the Danube Swabians. They emigrated in the 18th century to what was then the Austrian Banat province, which had been left sparsely populated by the wars with Turkey. This once strong and important ethnic Banat Swabian...
) in the 1930s. Other places where Czechs and Slovaks settled were the town of Gorna Oryahovitsa
Gorna Oryahovitsa
Gorna Oryahovitsa is a town in northern Bulgaria, situated in Veliko Tarnovo Province, not far from the city of Veliko Tarnovo. It is the administrative centre of the homonymous Gorna Oryahovitsa Municipality...
and the villages of Belintsi and Podayva, Razgrad Province
Razgrad Province
Razgrad Province , former name Razgrad okrug) is a province in Northeastern Bulgaria, geographically part of the Ludogorie region. It is named after its administrative and industrial centre - the town of Razgrad...
, with a significant Slovak community also present in Pleven Province
Pleven Province
Pleven Province is a province located in central northern Bulgaria, bordering the Danube river, Romania and the Bulgarian provinces of Vratsa, Veliko Tarnovo and Lovech. It is divided into 11 subdivisions, called municipalities, that embrace a territory of 4,333.54 km² with a population, as...
(Gorna Mitropolia, Podem
PODEM
PODEM is a centre-left political party in the Republic of Macedonia. It was founded on 12 July 2008 by former members of the New Social Democratic Party....
, Brashlyanitsa). A member of Bulgaria's Slovak community, Ďuro Mikoláš of Gorna Mitropolia, was an orderly (batman) to Tsar
Tsar
Tsar is a title used to designate certain European Slavic monarchs or supreme rulers. As a system of government in the Tsardom of Russia and Russian Empire, it is known as Tsarist autocracy, or Tsarism...
Ferdinand I of Bulgaria
Ferdinand I of Bulgaria
Ferdinand , born Ferdinand Maximilian Karl Leopold Maria of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha-Koháry, was the ruler of Bulgaria from 1887 to 1918, first as knyaz and later as tsar...
.
In Podem (old name Martvitsa or Slovak Mŕtvica), for example, the Slovaks arrived in 1884 from the southern Kingdom of Hungary
Kingdom of Hungary
The Kingdom of Hungary comprised present-day Hungary, Slovakia and Croatia , Transylvania , Carpatho Ruthenia , Vojvodina , Burgenland , and other smaller territories surrounding present-day Hungary's borders...
and numbered 210 by 1910; they lived in a separate Slovak neighbourhood with characteristic Slovak houses (white, elongated and with steep roofs) and built their Evangelist church in 1934.
Between 1948 and 1950, over 2,000 Czechs and Slovaks from Sofia
Sofia
Sofia is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria and the 12th largest city in the European Union with a population of 1.27 million people. It is located in western Bulgaria, at the foot of Mount Vitosha and approximately at the centre of the Balkan Peninsula.Prehistoric settlements were excavated...
and the aforementioned localities responded to the call of the government of Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
and returned to their native land to populate areas deserted in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. Only around 5% of their peak number, mostly people who had married local Bulgarians, remained.