Czechs and Slovaks in Bulgaria

Czechs (, chehi) and Slovaks (, slovatsi) 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.

History

Following the Liberation of Bulgaria 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...
Read More