The article presents, in a historical perspective, the political and cultural relations between Bulgaria and Italy, discussed at the International Scientific Conference “Bulgarian Catholics in Italy through the Centuries,” organized by the Neapolitan University “Orientale” on October 28 – 29, 2024, in Naples. The scientific forum was dedicated to the 350th anniversary of the death of three Bulgarian intellectuals and patriots who defined the character of the “golden 17th century” of Catholicism in the Bulgarian lands: the prelates Petar Bogdan Bakshich, Petar Parchevich, and Filip Stanislavov. The reports examined still unpublished or little-known data and documents regarding the activities of these heroes from the archives of the Vatican, Venice, and Naples, which reveal even more clearly the connection of these figures and their followers in the 18th and 19th centuries with Italy and the Italian language through which they became the first propagators of the Bulgarian national Revival.
Tatiana Lekova (Thu,) studied this question.