site.btaJournalists Bianca Vasile, Vladimir Mitev on Chitalishta as Centres of Various Communities

The chitalishte community centre in Romania's Izvoarele is a gathering place for the Bulgarian community there, said Bianca Vasile, a Romanian with Bulgarian roots who is a journalist and one of the founders of the Bulgarian minority association in Izvoarele, Bulgarian Springs. She was one of the two guests at the BTA Press Club in Bucharest on the occasion of the presentation of the new issue of LIK magazine on "Chitalishta: Past and Future."

"Bulgarians settled in Izvoarele about 200 years ago. They still preserve their language and traditions today. They used to gather at gatherings, at the drinking fountains, and at the villagers' houses. Since 1930, the chitalishte community centre has been the place where the main activities of the community take place: celebrations, meetings, and cultural events. Weddings are even held there," said Vasile.

"To promote our cuisine, we recently opened a local gastronomic spot called The Bulgarian Inn. There, together with the women from the village, we organize events and prepare dishes inherited from our grandmothers, passed down from mother to daughter. The project is mine, but it is part of a larger vision to promote the village as a Bulgarian tourist and gastronomic destination," added Vasile. Her wish is for the inn to be a cultural centre for the Bulgarian community in Izvoarele, but to complement the community centre, not replace it.

"I want to make it a tourist destination, a tourist route, and I am already in talks with some agencies. We want to bring Bulgarians to the village. Because it is a village that deserves to be explored. Izoarele is a community that has a lot to offer. Bulgarians should know that the language is still spoken in Izoarele, albeit in an archaic form. We want to tell the story of our community," said Vasile with undisguised emotion.

Vasile presented the BTA Press Club in Bucharest with a collection of postcards with archival photos of the village of Izvoarele and its Bulgarian inhabitants.

The other guest of BTA, journalist Vladimir Mitev from the Romanian office of the Bulgarian National Radio and founder of the Bulgarian-Romanian blog The Bridge of Friendship, added a slightly different element to the topic of chitalishta community centres. 

"Since Bulgarians are not the only ones who have community centres, I would like to mention the Angela Chakaryan Armenian Community Centre in Ruse [on the Danube]. As you know, the Armenian community in Ruse has existed for centuries, and its first church, as far as I know, dates back to the 17th century and is one of the oldest in the Balkans. The Armenian ties between Armenians from Ruse and Bucharest are also long-standing. An example of this is Emanuel Mirzoyan, known in Bucharest as Manuc Bei, founder and builder of Manuc's Inn in Bucharest. We are literally metres away from it here, in the BTA Press Club in Bucharest,"  Mitev noted.

He added that these ties continue today and gave the example of the celebration of Armenian Christmas in Ruse on January 10, an event that brought together Bulgarians and Armenians from both sides of the Danube. Among the guests was Ligia Kesisian, organizer of the Balkanik Festival, one of the largest festivals in Southeast Europe.

"The event, which is traditional and has been held for years in Bucharest, brought Bulgarian performers to the Romanian capital last year, including Kottarashky. Ligia Kesisian has realized something that I only profess in words, but she has made it a reality, namely that the world is bigger than the majorities in our countries and that it may be worthwhile to integrate the experience of people who do not belong to these majorities. This will make us all richer," said Mitev.