LE SYMPOSIUM INTERNATIONAL LE LIVRE. LA ROUMANIE. L ...

Romanians in Bulgaria. History and Ethnography 327
At the beginning of the xx th century, the romanian researchers, as G.
Vâlsan, G. Giuglea and C. Constante collected too ethno-folkloric elements
from timoc area, both from Bulgaria and Serbia. “With many difficulties
we could visited them, with my fellow Giuglea, in 1910 and 1911. We
collected much linguistic and ethnographic data which mostly remained
unpublished” 3 . Vâlsan described the area of extend of the romanians from
Bulgaria who “extend themselves in a very compact group on the bank
of the Danube, between Vidin town and timoc river, thus continuing the
romanians of Serbia. this piece of land, really romanian with regard
to population includes 36 villages, pure romanian. Another strip of land
with romanian population begins from the bank of Danube from rahova
to Şiştov (meaning from the mouth of jiu river till Zimnicea), and from
Turtucaia, town with many romanians (the river Argeş flows into danube
in front of this town) begins another romanian county, which, including
Silistra lays till the border of Dobrogea, thus forming a continuous strip
with romanians. Beside these compact groups, there are inside Bulgaria,
such as in Plevna and around Vraţa, many other places with romanian
population” 4 . Weigand, in 1900, found 91 villages where there were
romanian population, 45 villages being exclusively romanian. today there
is the same situation regarding the two groups of population from timoc
area (from lom to timoc) and from the Valley of the Danube (from lom
to turtucaia), the third group, the Dobrogea one, being no more because
the population exchange between romanians and Bulgarians following the
treaty of Craiova on September 1940.
the romanian population, especially those of the Valley of the
Danube was permanently supplied by the waves of romanian migration
from the left of the Danube. these naturally occurred, because the nature
of the occupation, the marriages but also of historical conjectures (such
as the organic rule on 1831 in romanian Country). the autochthonous
romanians call the new comers ţăreni (peasants) with the meaning: people
coming from the country (rom. ţară). In these villages the A-romanians
from the south of peninsula settled too for merchandise but also as shepherds
or refugees.
F. Kanitz wrote about the inhabitants from Bregova that they
came from romania 25 years ago 5 , data considered wrong by
3 VâlSAn, George, “românii din Serbia”, Buletinul Societăţii Regale Române de
Geografie, Bucureşti, anul lVi, (1937): 2.
4 VÂlsAN, George, “românii din Bulgaria şi serbia”, România şi popoarele
balcanice (Bucureşti, 1913): 54.
5 KANiTZ, Felix, “Bulgaria dunăreană şi Balcanii” (1875), Românii din Timoc,