Структура и източници на Бешеновската хроника
Structure and Sources of the Parish History of Old Beshenov

Summary/Abstract: The article presents the content of Historia Parochiae Oppidi Óbessenyő, the parish history of the Bulgarian settlement in Banat, Old Beshenov. The manuscript is still unpublished although being of great value for the reconstruction of the fate of the Bulgarian Catholics after the defeat of the Chiprovtsi revolt in 1688. The parish of Old Beshenov was founded in 1738 by a large group of Bulgarians (Pavlikyani) from Donau Bulgaria who left their home for Austrian Vlachia, and consequently, resumed their journey to Banat after the unsuccessful wars of Austria with the Turkish Empire in 1737-1738. Far from being just local records of the hard life of the colonists, texts like the Old Beshenov chronicle always began with the foundation of the First Bulgarian State as a distant event which eventually led to the establishment of their community. A distinctive feature of these Latin writings, composed on the territory of the Habsburg monarchy, was that they were strongly affected by the contemporary Hungarian and Austrian historiography, a fact which reflected upon their interpretation of some crucial points in the Balkan history, sometimes in a strong divergence with the later vernacular tradition. Our intention is to show the tripartite structure of the Old Beshenov history and to offer some conclusions about the date and the authorship of the manuscript.

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