Bulgarians Bulgarians ( bg, българи, Bǎlgari, ) are a nation and South Slavic ethnic group native to Bulgaria and the rest of Southeast Europe. Etymology Bulgarians derive their ethnonym from the Bulgars. Their name is not completely unders ...

( es, búlgaros) in

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

( bg, Испания, ''Ispania'') are one of the largest communities of the

Bulgarian diaspora The Bulgarian diaspora includes Bulgarians living outside Bulgaria and its surrounding countries, as well as immigrants from Bulgaria abroad. The number of Bulgarians outside Bulgaria has sharply increased since 1989, following the Revolutions ...

. According to official 2019 data, they numbered 197,373, making them the tenth-largest emigrant community in Spain and the second-largest among Central and Eastern European emigrant communities.

History

The bulk of

consists of recent economic immigrants. Until recent years, Bulgarian emigration to Spain was scarce and unorganized. According to historian Ivan Dimitrov, an unknown number of Bulgarians fled to Spain after the Ottoman conquest of the Second Bulgarian Empire in the late 14th or early 15th century. Dimitrov claims that around 300 families in Spain retain memories of their Bulgarian origin from that period. Among Bulgarians are

Banat Bulgarians The Banat Bulgarians ( Banat Bulgarian: ''Palćene'' or ''Banátsći balgare''; common bg, Банатски българи, Banatski balgari; ro, Bulgari bănățeni; sr, / ), also known as Bulgarian Roman Catholics and Bulgarians Paulician ...

from Romania,

Aromanians The Aromanians ( rup, Armãnji, Rrãmãnji) are an ethnic group native to the southern Balkans who speak Aromanian, an Eastern Romance language. They traditionally live in central and southern Albania, south-western Bulgaria, northern and ...

and

Megleno-Romanians The Megleno-Romanians, also known as Meglenites ( ruq, Miglinits), Moglenite Vlachs or simply Vlachs ( ruq, Vlaș), are a small Eastern Romance people, originally inhabiting seven villages in the Moglena region spanning the Pella and Kilkis re ...

who became adjusted to Spanish society because of the linguistic similarities between

Romanian Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania **Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language *** Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language ** Romanian cuisine, tradition ...

, Aromanian, Megleno-Romanian, and

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

, as well as Latin identity of Aromanians and Megleno-Romanians, and Banat Bulgarians are predominantly Roman Catholic. With the upsurge of Bulgarian economy in the 18th and 19th centuries, individual Bulgarian merchants reached the markets of Spain, though a colony was never formed even after the

Liberation of Bulgaria The Liberation of Bulgaria is the historical process as a result of the Bulgarian Revival. In Bulgarian historiography, the liberation of Bulgaria refers to those events of the Tenth Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878) that led to the re-establishme ...

in 1878. Only after

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

did Bulgarian

gardener A gardener is someone who practices gardening, either professionally or as a hobby. Description A gardener is any person involved in gardening, arguably the oldest occupation, from the hobbyist in a residential garden, the home-owner supplem ...

s reach Spain and

Catalonia Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a '' nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy. Most of the territory (except the Val d'Aran) lies on the nort ...

specifically. According to a 1930 statistic, 88 Bulgarian gardeners worked in Spain. However, the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, link ...

of 1936–39 and

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

that followed hindered the formation of a gardening colony. After World War II, a small number of Bulgarian political emigrants fleeing the communist regime settled in Spain. Among those emigrants was a large part of the Bulgarian royal family, including the deposed child monarch

Tsar Tsar ( or ), also spelled ''czar'', ''tzar'', or ''csar'', is a title used by East and South Slavic monarchs. The term is derived from the Latin word ''caesar'', which was intended to mean "emperor" in the European medieval sense of the ter ...

Simeon II of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, who was granted asylum by Francisco Franco in 1951. Simeon II lived in Spain for 50 years, until his return to Bulgaria in 2001. Around 1998, the number of Bulgarians in Spain was only around 3,000. By 2002, around 10,000 people had been officially registered as legal Bulgarian emigrants, though the number of

illegal immigrants Illegal immigration is the migration of people into a country in violation of the immigration laws of that country or the continued residence without the legal right to live in that country. Illegal immigration tends to be financially upwa ...

was thought to be much larger. In the early 21st century, substantial Bulgarian communities were formed in

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the Largest cities of the Europ ...

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

, Málaga, San Sebastián,

Valladolid Valladolid () is a municipality in Spain and the primary seat of government and de facto capital of the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is also the capital of the province of the same name. It has a population around 300,000 peop ...

, Palma de Mallorca and other cities.

Foreign population of Bulgarian citizenship in Spain

Bulgarian citizens living in Spain include ethnic Bulgarians as well as minority groups (including Turks, Pomaks, Armenians etc.).

Notable people

Mariana Gurkova Mariana Dimitrova Gurkova-Franco ( bg, Марияна Димитрова Гуркова-Франко) is a Bulgarian pianist, born in Sofia. Gurkova, who nowadays is a naturalised Spanish citizen, settled in Madrid in 1988. A former head professo ...

Romano Kristoff Romano Kristoff is a Spanish actor, writer and director, better known for his work in Filipino cinema. He worked mostly in the Philippines between the 1980s and early 1990s. He was also credited as Rom Kristoff, Ron Kristoff, Run Kristoff, Ron Kra ...

References

Notes

Sources

* *

External links

Bulgarian embassy in Spain

List of Bulgarian organizations in Spain by the Agency for Bulgarians Abroad

Bulgarian orthodox parish of the Nativity of the Mother of God in Barcelona
{{Bulgarian diaspora Ethnic groups in Spain