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The Bulgarians in Italy are one of the sizable communities of the Bulgarian diaspora in Western Europe. There are about 120,000 Bulgarians in Italy according to the Bulgarian government. [1] There are Bulgarian Orthodox parishes in Rome and Milan. [2] Major centres of Bulgarian migration are Milan, Bologna, Florence and Torino.
In the early 7th century AD, groups of Bulgars, one of the ancient peoples that participated in the ethnogenesis of the modern Bulgarians, settled in the Italian Peninsula. The main migration was headed by Altsek, a Bulgar leader who initially joined the Avar Khaganate before switching allegiance to the Germanic Lombards. Altsek and his people arrived in the Exarchate of Ravenna, where Grimoald I of Benevento invited them to populate the Duchy of Benevento. According to the Gesta Dagoberti I regis Francorum , Altsek's Bulgars settled in what are today the communes of Isernia, Bojano and Sepino. Altsek remained the leader of the Bulgar-populated areas, bearing the title gastald. [3] [4] [5] [6]
It is uncertain whether this Altsek can be identified with another Bulgar lord, Altsiok. According to the Chronicle of Fredegar, Altsiok deserted the Avar Khaganate in 631–632. Altsiok settled in Bavaria with 9,000 Bulgars under Frankish king Dagobert I. Altsiok is known to have moved to the Venetian March with his 700 remaining men after Dagobert I slaughtered most of his people. [3] [4] [5]
Paul the Deacon in his Historia Langobardorum writing after the year 787 says that in his time Bulgars still inhabited the area, and that even though they speak "Latin," "they have not forsaken the use of their own tongue." [7] In later times they had evidently become completely assimilated.
Human graves of a steppe nomadic character as well as horse burials dated to the second half of the 8th century AD attest to the presence of Bulgars in the Molise and Campania regions. [8] Toponyms containing the root bulgar and personal names such as Bulgari and di Bulgari continued to appear in medieval documents relating to the Italian Peninsula.
In the 17th century, Bulgarian Roman Catholics often visited Rome in their attempts to negotiate support for a Bulgarian uprising against the Ottoman Empire. Prominent religious and public leaders such as Petar Bogdan and Petar Parchevich spent time in the city. The first book printed in modern Bulgarian, Abagar , was published in Rome in 1651. [5]
Based on Demo Istat statistics
The Bulgars were Turkic semi-nomadic warrior tribes that flourished in the Pontic–Caspian steppe and the Volga region during the 7th century. They became known as nomadic equestrians in the Volga-Ural region, but some researchers believe that their ethnic roots can be traced to Central Asia.
Boris I, venerated as Saint Boris I (Mihail) the Baptizer, was the ruler (knyaz) of the First Bulgarian Empire in 852–889. The historian Steven Runciman called him one of the greatest persons in history. Despite a number of military setbacks, the reign of Boris I was marked with significant events that shaped Bulgarian and European history. With the Christianization of Bulgaria in 864, paganism was abolished. A skillful diplomat, Boris I successfully exploited the conflict between the Patriarchate of Constantinople and the Papacy to secure an autocephalous Bulgarian Church, thus dealing with the nobility's concerns about Byzantine interference in Bulgaria's internal affairs.
Krum, often referred to as Krum the Fearsome was the Khan of Bulgaria from sometime between 796 and 803 until his death in 814. During his reign the Bulgarian territory doubled in size, spreading from the middle Danube to the Dnieper and from Odrin to the Tatra Mountains. His able and energetic rule brought law and order to Bulgaria and developed the rudiments of state organization.
Kubrat was the ruler of the Onogur–Bulgars, credited with establishing the confederation of Old Great Bulgaria in ca. 632. His name derived from the Turkic words qobrat — "to gather", or qurt, i.e. "wolf".
Bulgar is an extinct Oghur Turkic language spoken by the Bulgars.
Isernia is a town and comune in the southern Italian region of Molise, and the capital of province of Isernia.
The province of Campobasso is a province in the Molise region of southern Italy. Its capital is the city of Campobasso.
The Dulo clan was a ruling dynasty of the Bulgars, who were of Turkic origin. It is generally considered that their elite was related to the Huns and the Western Turkic Khaganate. Particularly, it is said that the Dulo descended from the rulers of Old Great Bulgaria. This state was a centralized monarchy from its inception, unlike previous Hunno-Turkic political entities, which were tribal confederations.
Kuber was a Bulgar leader who, according to the Miracles of Saint Demetrius, liberated a mixed Bulgar and Byzantine Christian population in the 670s, whose ancestors had been transferred from the Eastern Roman Empire to the Syrmia region in Pannonia by the Avars 60 years earlier. According to a scholarly theory, he was a son of Kubrat, brother of Khan Asparukh and member of the Dulo clan.
Alcek or Alzeco was allegedly a son of Kubrat and led the Bulgars to Ravenna that later settled in the villages of Gallo Matese, Sepino, Boiano and Isernia in the Matese mountains of southern Italy.
The First Bulgarian Empire was a medieval state that existed in Southeastern Europe between the 7th and 11th centuries AD. It was founded in 680–681 after part of the Bulgars, led by Asparuh, moved south to the northeastern Balkans. There they secured Byzantine recognition of their right to settle south of the Danube by defeating – possibly with the help of local South Slavic tribes – the Byzantine army led by Constantine IV. During the 9th and 10th century, Bulgaria at the height of its power spread from the Danube Bend to the Black Sea and from the Dnieper River to the Adriatic Sea and became an important power in the region competing with the Byzantine Empire. It became the foremost cultural and spiritual centre of south Slavic Europe throughout most of the Middle Ages.
Perctarit was king of the Lombards from 661 to 662 the first time and later from 671 to 688.
Grimoald or Grimwald (†671) was a 7th-century King of Italy, ruling as Duke of Benevento from 647 to 662, and then as King of the Lombards from 662 until his death in 671.
Bojano or Boiano is a town and comune in the province of Campobasso, Molise, south-central Italy.
Mirabello Sannitico is a small town in the province of Campobasso, Molise, southern Italy. The population is about 2,100 inhabitants. It has an agrarian-based culture and history, dating back to at least the 12th century. Nearby towns include Campobasso to the northwest and Vinchiaturo to the southwest. The Tappino River flows on either side of the town on the north and south.
Sepino is a comune (municipality) in the Province of Campobasso in the Italian region Molise, located about 20 kilometres (12 mi) south of Campobasso. It is a member of the I Borghi più belli d'Italia association.
The Bulgarian lands across the Danube or Transdanubian Bulgaria is a term by which Bulgarian historiography means the territories under the rule and control of the Bulgarian Empire north of the Danube. These territories today cover the territory of Romania and Moldova, eastern Hungary, Vojvodina in Serbia and Budjak in Ukraine.
Kanasubigi, possibly read as Kanas Ubigi or Kanas U Bigi was a title of the early Bulgar rulers of First Bulgarian Empire. Omurtag and his son Malamir are mentioned in inscriptions as Kanasubigi.
Mauros was a Bulgar leader, one of the chief subordinates and closest supporters of Kuber, a 7th-century Bulgar ruler in Macedonia. After orchestrating a foiled attempt to capture Thessaloniki for Kuber, Mauros remained in the city and joined the ranks of the Byzantine aristocracy. He was bestowed the noble title of patrikios and was deeply involved in the power struggle between Justinian II and Philippikos Bardanes in the beginning of the 8th century. Mauros is the earliest attested leader, styled archon, to be placed by the Byzantine government in charge of a dependent people, in this case the Bulgars and Sermesianoi who had fled to Byzantium.
Old Great Bulgaria or Great Bulgaria, also often known by the Latin names Magna Bulgaria and Patria Onoguria, was a 7th-century Turkic nomadic empire formed by the Onogur-Bulgars on the western Pontic–Caspian steppe. Great Bulgaria was originally centered between the Dniester and lower Volga.
During these times a duke of the Bulgarians, Alzeco by name, left his own people, from what cause is unknown, and peacefully entering Italy with the whole army of his dukedom, came to king Grimuald, promising to serve him and to dwell in his country. And the king directing him to Beneventum to his son Romuald, ordered that the latter should assign to him and his people places to dwell in. [1] Duke Romuald, receiving them graciously, accorded to them extensive tracts to settle which had been deserted up to that time, namely, Sepinum (Sepino), Bovianum (Bojano), Isernia [2] and other cities with their territories and directed that Alzeco himself, the name of his title being changed, should be called gastaldius [3] instead of duke. And they dwell up to the present time in these places, as we have said, and although they also speak Latin, they have not at all forsaken the use of their own language.
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