The Paulician Bulgarians – An Ethno-religious and Endogamous Community in South-Eeastern Bucharest

Abstract

This study traces the two-century history of the Paulician Bulgarians (Pavlicians), a Catholic ethnic-religious community that settled on Bucharest's outskirts - in Cioplea and Popesti, on either side of the Dambovita River - after fleeing Russian-Turkish conflicts. It examines their role in shaping Bucharest's urban consumption habits and situates them within the city’s broader ethnic diversity and “ethno-business” landscape. Renowned as skilled gardeners and cattle breeders, the Pavlicians became the capital’s main suppliers of vegetables and dairy, securing a lasting presence in its markets and even altering local eating habits by monopolizing certain products, such as okra. As a closed community, they preserved their language, Catholic faith, and endogamous marriage practices far longer than Orthodox Bulgarians, who assimilated more rapidly. Their agrarian way of life - dependent on open land and the Dambovita -was disrupted by forced industrialization and collectivization: their lands were absorbed into agricultural cooperatives (C.A.P.s), and much of Cioplea was demolished to build housing blocks for workers of the new industrial platforms in eastern and southern Bucharest. Today, the Paulician Bulgarian population has dwindled, with Cioplea and Popesti now absorbed into new real estate development and inhabited largely by outsiders. Few descendants remain in traditional market occupations, most having transitioned to industrial work under communism and, later, market-economy activities.