1877
177,646 people living in Bucharest. In terms of religion: Predominantly Christian, of which 132,987 (75%) Orthodox, 16,991 (10%) Roman Catholics, 5,854 (3%) Protestant, 206 Christian Armenians and 796 Lipovan (Orthodox Old Rite). Among other religions, Jews were most numerous (20,749 or 12%, with 10 synagogues and 20 chapels) and a small number of Muslims (mostly Turks) who at the time had not yet a mosque. Orthodox were predominantly Romanian and there were small groups of Bulgarian and Albanian Orthodox refugees. Roman Catholics were Germans, Hungarians and Poles. Protestants were Germans and Hungarians.
1930
Religious structure: Orthodox 486,193 (76.08%), 76,480 Mosaic (11.96%), 36,414 Roman Catholics (5.69%), 12,882 Greek Catholics (2.01%), 12,203 Lutherans (1.90% ), Reformed (1.14%) etc.
2002
In 2002, the religious structure was: Orthodox 1,850,414 (96.05%), 23,450 Roman Catholics (1.21%), 9,488 Muslims (0.49%), 7,558 Greek Catholics (0.39%), 5,452 Pentecostals, 4,381 Adventists and others. Also,1,068 people have said no religion and 2,590 atheists.
Patriarchal Cathedral of St. Joseph
Greek Catholic Church of St. Basil
Minority communities
Gypsy community
Largest minority community in Bucharest at the 2002 census was Gypsy community (27,322 people or 1.4% of the population). During the 90s many Gypsies emigrated to the West or returned to localities in the province of which emigrated in the years 1970-1989. The 1992 census counted 32,984 were Gypsies (ie 1.6% of the population).
Hebrew community
Largest minority community in Bucharest was once the Hebrew. In 1930, 69,885 Hebrew lived in Bucharest, representing 10.93% of the city. The events of the Second World War and then immigrating to Israel led to massive drop in Bucharest Hebrew population. On the old Hebrew district ranks today the Union shopping complex and adjacent area. In Bucharest there is a Hebrew state theater. There are still several Hebrew synagogues and cemeteries (one of the Hebrew cemeteries is Sephardic). In 1992 3,883 Hebrew were numbered, and in 2002 2,473 Hebrew.
Coral Temple, the main synagogue in Bucharest
Hungarian community
According to the 1930 census, in that year 24,052 Hungarians living in Bucharest, representing 3.76% of the population of the city, especially from the Székely counties Three Chairs (Covasna today), Odorhei and Ciuc (Harghita today).
Comparatively, in 1992 lived 8,585 Hungarian, representing 0.36% of the total population, and in 2002 5,834 Hungarians (0.3%). In Bucharest works the Ady Endre Lyceum, teaching in Hungarian. Petofi”s home is the community cultural center, which operates the library. In Bucharest is published the national daily Magyar Új Szo and monthly community newspaper Bukaresti Közlöny. The Reformed Church (Calvinist) from Bucharest offers liturgies in Hungarian. Among the Bucharest women of Hungarian origin are Renczi Vera and Eve Kiss.
German community
German community dates back to the eighteenth century, consisting mostly of Saxon merchants. Of this century dates the first mention of a wooden Lutheran church. On the eve of World War I German share reached 8%, as it not only by the Saxons, but also Prussian and Austrian. In Bucharest works Goethe College (formerly “Theoretical High School Hermann Oberth”) with German language. Also persist Lutheran (Evangelical) Church with German language liturgy. At the census of 1977 the German population was made up of almost 8,000 people. In 1992 the Germans were numbered 4,391, and in 2002 only 2,358 Germans.
The name of the famous street merchants Lipscani comes from the German city Leipzig (Leipzig).
Armenian community
A community with ancient cultural and economic traditions in Bucharest is the Armenian. In 1930 4,748 Armenians lived in Bucharest, representing 0.74% of the population of the city. At the 1992 census were numbered 909, and in 2002 only 815 Armenians in Bucharest. Places like Armenian Street are reminiscent of the presence of the Armenians in the city. There is an Armenian church and a cemetery in Bucharest.
Greek Community
Another community in Bucharest is the old Greek traditions. It dates back to the period Phanariot (1715-1821). In 1930, 4,293 Greeks were living in Bucharest, representing 0.67% of the total city population.
Bulgarian community
Presence of Bulgarian population in Bucharest has existed for centuries, from the Seventeenth century, when some Bulgarian Catholics Franciscan monks erected on the site of the present church Bărăția a wooden church. Most Bulgarians are Orthodox, joining from 1954 until April 2009 within the Bulgarian Orthodox Church “St. Elijah” (now “St. Elias-Colței Inn”, taken by the Romanian Orthodox Church, through the Archdiocese of Bucharest – Bucharest Deanery III). Also there are Bulgarian Catholics, represented by the Holy Mother of God Church. Reasons for Bulgarians arrived in Bucharest are different: either political (taking refuge due to the Ottomans before 1878) or socio-ecomonical (to have a better life – especially in the first half of the century). Ccommunist authorities closed the Bulgarian schools, but in autumn 1999, in Bucharest was reopened, along with Romanian School in Sofia, a Bulgarian old school with 3 classes and a total of 84 students, with teaching in Bulgarian. Some neighborhoods in Bucharest continues to have a large population of Bulgarians: Giulești-Sârbi, Dudești-Cioplea (largely Catholic). Bulgarians live in neighborhoods in some villages located near the capital (in Brăneşti, Bragadiru, Glina Dobroeşti, Pantelimon, Colentina, Chiajna, Roșu, or Bulgarians Catholic pavlicheni in Popești-Leordeni).
Bulgarian Catholic Church, Holy Mother of God Former
Polish Community
Also lives in Bucharest a Polish population, almost as significant as that of Bukovina. Poles arrived especially before World War I and during the Second World War – in both cases the refugees who decided to settle here. In the Polish emigration, played an important role Union of Poland Migration (1866-1871), which had a branch in Bucharest. Bucharest Poles are intellectuals in a significant proportion, and one of them, H. Dabrowski, was mayor of Bucharest in the period 1940-1942. Poland Street is named after this community. Today live in Bucharest several hundred Poles, but in 1890 their number amounted to about 3,000 people (about 1.5% of the city).
Albanian community
Bucharest is the center of the Albanian community in Romania. Bucharest Albanian community began to form in the first half of the nineteenth century, when the capital of Wallachia became a center of intellectual and cultural initiatives as Dora d”Istria, Naim Frasheri, Jani Vreto and Naum Veqilharxhi (author of the first Albanian primer, printed in Bucharest in 1844). Aleksander Stavre Drenova titled the lyrics of the Albanian national anthem, Hymni i Flamurit, when he lived in Bucharest. Most of these intellectuals had taken refuge in Romania from Ottoman hindrance way. In 1920 lived in Bucharest nearly 20,000 Albanians. Today live only a few hundred Albanians in Bucharest. Majority of the Bucharest Albanians are Orthodox Christians, but there are a smaller number of Albanian Muslims.
Materials translated and adapted from the Wikipedia under the GNU Free Documentation License.
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