site.btaMoldova's "Bulgarian" Town of Taraclia Celebrates 211th Anniversary

The Bulgarian-founded town of Taraclia, which remains the centre of the Bulgarian community in Moldova to this day, celebrated 211 years since its establishment on May 6. The observances started with a liturgy in the local St George Church, whose patron saint's feast day coincides with the anniversary. Football, volleyball, wrestling and taekwondo competitions were held in the central stadium.

Later in the day, hundreds of people watched a concert in the town square. Taraclia Mayor Veaceslav Lupov told the crowd: "I have ambitions. I want Taraclia to become the number one sporting town in Moldova."

According to official sources, Taraclia was founded in 1813 by Bulgarian migrants, who began to settle there years earlier. This is one of the oldest Bulgarian settlements in what was then Southern Bessarabia. The earliest migrants from Bulgaria arrived during the Russo-Turkish War of 1806-1812.

Nowadays, Taraclia is the capital of an administrative district of the same name in the south of Moldova, inhabited mainly by ethnic Bulgarians.