BULGARIAN GARDENERS: REFLECTIONS ON THE HISTORY OF URBAN GARDENING IN CROATIA

This paper is a part of the results of ethnological and cultural and anthropological research of the members of the Bulgarian national minority in Croatia. The emphasis is put on the part of the population known in Europe and the world under the micro-ethnonym Bulgarian gardeners. In accordance with statistic, demographic, cultural and ethnographic research, there are indications that most of the Bulgarians who currently live in Croatia - and there are 350 of them according to the 2011 census - are the descendants of this population and almost half of them live in Zagreb. It is important to say that this economic migrant population is characterised as a European and world, i.e. global economic, social and cultural phenomenon. The paper is divided into several parts. The first part analyses the reasons of emigration from the domicile area, the chronology of emigration and the typology in accordance with classical, neoclassical and modern migration theories, as well as migration destinations chosen by the migrants on the basis of precisely defined criteria. Furthermore, the formation of economic shelters, i.e. their position on migration areas is discussed, as well as the organisation of work and life, technology of vegetable growing, economic prosperity, structural characteristics of the community and their transformation, stagnation of production and the gradual abandonment of their practice and profession from late 1980s onwards. The final part of the paper is devoted to the analysis of mnemonic characteristics of the community that builds and preserves its existence and identity mostly on remembering and memory.