Vice President Iliana Yotova became an honorary resident of Star Beshenov in Romania. The ceremony was held within the framework of a festive meeting of the Municipal Council, chaired by Mayor Bono Kukalan. Earlier in the day, Yotova opened the school year at the school founded 280 years ago by Bulgarians in Star Beshenov - the Theoretical Lyceum “St. St. Cyril and Methodius”, which has been operating continuously since 1745, BTA reports.
In August 2013, Hristo Stoichkov also became an honorary resident of Star Beshenov. This happened during the opening of a stadium in the village that bears his name, in recognition of his sporting successes and patriotism. The stadium is the only one in the world named after our football legend. Its opening was a unique event not only for the Banat Bulgarians who live there, but also for Romania, because for the first time a sports facility has been named after a star from another country.
Honorary residents of Star Beshenov are also Nikola Mirkovic - the previous deputy of the Bulgarian minority in the Romanian Parliament and Father Yanni Vasilchin, patriarch of the community and author of many books about the Banat Bulgarians.
The Catholic Bulgarians from Banat are the oldest Bulgarian diaspora in Romania today. They settled in these places in 1738 after the suppression of the Chiprovtsi Uprising. According to data from the last official population census of 2021, Star Beshenov has 3,827 inhabitants. Of these, 1,631 are representatives of the Bulgarian ethnicity, which represents almost 43 percent of the entire population.