Send Gift Baskets to Deva, Romania

A privilege-grant for the Count Chyl of Kelling (Romanian: committee Chyl din Câlnic) in 1269 mentions “the royal castle of Deva,” the first document showing the city’s existence. After being partially destroyed by the Ottoman Turks in 1550, it was rebuilt, and the fortress was extended. The Magna Curia Palace (the Bethlen Castle) was transformed and developed in Renaissance style by Prince Gabriel Bethlen in 1621.

A group of Roman Catholic Bulgarian merchant refugees from the unsuccessful anti-Ottoman Chiprovtsi Uprising of 1688 settled Deva in 1711–1712. Initially, the refugees mainly came from Chiprovtsi and Zhelezna but also from Kopilovtsi and Klisura. Refugees came to Deva from Wallachia and Alvinc (now Vințu de Jos, Romania), where a similar colony had been established in 1700.

In 1716, 51 families and three Franciscan friars established their neighborhood, which was called Greci (“Greeks,” i.e., “merchants”). Despite the colony’s maximum population of 71 families in 1721, their influence over local affairs caused Deva to be officially called a “Bulgarian town” for a short time. Along with their permission to settle and property acquisition, the Bulgarians received royal privileges from the Austrian crown. The Bulgarian population funded and built Deva’s Franciscan friary in 1724, so the monastery became known as the Bulgarian Monastery. By the late 19th century, the Bulgarian ethnic element in the town had disappeared entirely due to the Great Plague of 1738 and gradual assimilation into other Transylvanian groups.