Bulgarian-inhabited places in the Banat

  Bulgarian population

  City or town

The Banat Bulgarians (Banat Bulgarian: Palćene or Banátsći balgare; common Bulgarian: Банатски българи, romanized: Banatski bălgari; Romanian: Bulgari bănățeni; Serbian: Банатски Бугари / Banatski Bugari), also known as Bulgarian Roman Catholics, Bulgarian Latin Catholics and Bulgarians Paulicians or simply as Paulicians, are a distinct Bulgarian minority group which since the Chiprovtsi Uprising in the late 17th century began to settle 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. Unlike most other Bulgarians, they are Roman Catholic by confession and stem from groups of Paulicians (who eventually adopted Catholicism) and Roman Catholics from modern northern and northwestern Bulgaria.

Banat Bulgarians speak a distinctive codified form of the Eastern Bulgarian vernacular with much lexical influence from the other languages of the Banat. Although strongly acculturated to the Pannonian region (remote from Bulgaria's mainland), they have preserved their Bulgarian identity; however, they consider themselves Bulgarians among other ethnic groups but self-identify as Paulicians when compared to ethnic Bulgarians. (Full article...)

• ... that Will Wood conducted a Bulgarian choir via Zoom for "White Noise"?
• ... that during the 1899–1900 peasant unrest in Bulgaria, some troops refused orders to fire on the protesters?
• ... that Tsvetana Jermanova survived imprisonment in two forced labour camps in communist Bulgaria?
• ... that basketball player Charel Allen was a five-time Bulgarian Cup champion despite knowing only a few words of Bulgarian?

A view of the northern part of the Pirin mountain. The second-highest mountain of Bulgaria, Pirin is famed for its 176 glacier lakes and harbours the UNESCO World Heritage Pirin National Park.

• ...that the Zograf Monastery (pictured) on the Holy Mountain was burnt down by a Catalan pirate raid in 1275?

• ...that Mandritsa is known as the only Albanian village in Bulgaria?

• ...that the Banat Bulgarian Stefan Dunjov participated in both the Hungarian Revolution of 1848 and the unification of Italy, and was the first Bulgarian to be promoted to the rank of Colonel?

• ...that Ivan Bogorov, who published the first Bulgarian newspaper in 1846 in Leipzig, was also an ardent supporter of Bulgarian linguistic purism and was known for his often amusing neologisms?