Sofia to Fund Repair of Burned Cathedral of Bessarabia Bulgarians

Pictured: The fire at the Savior's Transfiguration Cathedral in Bolgrad destroyed its dome. Shapshot from Skat TV

The Bulgarian government has announced it is going to provide a total of BGN 100 000 for the repair of the burned Orthodox Christian Cathedral in the ethnic Bulgarian-populated town of Bolgrad in Ukraine.

The Savior's Transfiguration Cathedral in Bolgrad, a spiritual center of the historical ethnic Bulgarian community in the southwest of Ukraine, burned down the night of January 26.

"Bulgaria's Consul in Odessa has already visited the Bolgrad cathedral, where the dome has been destroyed," Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov said in Sofia Friday.

In his words, the total Bulgarian contribution for the repair of the cathedral will be about EUR 100 000. EUR 30 000 will be provided by the Bulgarian Parliamentary Committee on Religion, another EUR 10 000 will come from the northeastern Bulgarian municipality of General Toshevo, which has a sister city partnership with Bolgrad, and the rest of the money needed, about BGN 100 000 (EUR 50 000) will be provided directly from the Bulgarian Cabinet's budget.

The Bulgarian minorities in the region of Bessarabia (today in Moldova and Ukraine) formed in the 16th-19th century when people from Bulgaria proper fled atrocities in the Ottoman Turkish Empire to the safety of the region which was back then part of the Russian Empire.

Bolgrad – a town founded in 1821 by Bulgarian settlers – and its school have been celebrated as a center of Bulgarian culture.

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