Vlachs of Serbia

Historical references

On the Balkan Peninsula, within medieval feudal states, the assimilation of the older pre-Slavic population—Illyrian in the west, Daco-Thracian romanized population in the east—took place. Over time, under the socio-economic conditions of that era, these people evolved from ethnic Vlachs into a distinct social class of Slavic livestock herders known as vlachs, settled in permanent, predominantly mountainous communities. Given the uneven socio-economic conditions across different parts of the Balkans—a feature particularly characteristic of both Serbian and later Ottoman feudalism—this process was neither uniform everywhere nor was it completed everywhere. In the northern regions of Serbia, where Serbian feudalism never established state-building centers capable of shaping overall cultural development, this process continued into the era of Ottoman feudalism. Because autonomous territories with local self-governance under direct sultanic authority existed within this system, these autonomous regions held special importance for the still primitive Vlach population, whom the Ottoman authorities encountered along their assimilative ethnic boundary. Serving the sultan, this population carried specific duties (such as martoloses and soldiers) alongside considerable rights. Beyond historical records, a vibrant oral tradition regarding the status of this population in eastern Serbia persists to this day.

Given that the region of Eastern Serbia lies near the so-called northern Balkan ethnic Romance core, the process of complete Vlach ethnic integration with the Serbian population was slowed down by the subsequent immigration of fresh Romance-speaking populations (Ungureani, Țărani) from the north during the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, and possibly from the south, particularly during the first decades of Ottoman rule. Furthermore, this area is geographically and culturally tied to the Carpathian region, a key defining characteristic of which is a population that, by genesis, partly originates from a very early Thracian-Dacian-Slavic symbiosis. In that area, the Danube was no barrier to migration for the entire Carpathian population, as evidenced by recent Serbian archival data. Consequently, since Eastern Serbia forms an integral part of this broader geographical and cultural area, its present-day Vlach population—along with a portion of the Serbian population (the native inhabitants)—would essentially be indigenous in the broadest sense of the word. The only difference is that through migrations both within the area as a whole and into its narrower sub-regions, they settled across various historical periods. Thus, the Vlach settlement in Eastern Serbia represents an internal population movement within the wider Carpathian-Balkan region, driven by historical circumstances.

As early as the 1920s, the Dutch Slavist van Nikolaas van Wijk proposed a theory suggesting that, during the Early Middle Ages, Serbs were separated from Bulgarians by a belt inhabited by a Vlach population. It was only later – after these Romanians partially migrated to other regions and partially succumbed to assimilation – that the western and eastern branches of the South Slavs came into direct contact. This perspective harmonizes with the findings of linguistic geography which (long after van Wijk) established a very strong concentration of isoglosses along the demarcation line between the two large blocks of the South Slavic ethnic group. From the mouth of the Timok River, across the eastern foothills of the mountains along the Serbian-Bulgarian border to Osogovo, and further to Ovče Polje and south of Tetovo, there exists a bundle of isoglosses that must be at least a thousand years old. In addition to linguistic evidence, anthropological and archaeological research also shows that during their settlement, the Slavs found southwestern Serbia almost completely deserted, while significant groups of the indigenous population (Romanoi/Romans) survived in the north and east of the country. The process of Slavicization and population mixing was not instantaneous; although the Slavs permanently settled in the 7th century, intensive anthropological mixing with the locals only began at the end of the 11th century. Over time, the indigenous population either migrated toward the territory of present-day Romania or was assimilated through the expansion of the medieval Serbian state's borders.

The aforementioned Romance belt, previously a part of Moesia, became part of the Morava region in the 9th century, while in the 11th century, it was part of the Byzantine Theme of Bulgaria.

• The codex of the Mount Athos St. Panteleimon Monastery states, among other things, the following: "Those who lived around the Danube – Bulgarians, Moravians (Serbs and Vlachs), and the Slavs of Illyria – were finally enlightened by holy baptism during the 9th century [the year 864] during the reign of Autokrator Michael and the glorious Patriarch Photios."
• In 1020, Basil II the Bulgar-Slayer established a separate bishopric for the Vlachs with its seat in Vranje, which fell under the jurisdiction of the Archbishopric of Ohrid. Specifically, the chrysobull reads, among other things: "Likewise, all towns that were omitted by the charter of my majesty shall nevertheless be subjected to the authority of the same most holy archbishop, who shall collect taxes from everyone, including the Vlachs living scattered throughout the whole of Bulgaria."
• In his Strategikon, written around 1078, Kekaumenos says regarding the origin of the Vlachs (Aromanians): "For these are those who are called Dacians and Bessi. Formerly they lived near the Danube and the Saos River, which we now call the Sava River... Having departed from there, they [the Vlachs] were scattered throughout all of Epirus and Macedonia, while most of them settled in Greece.
• The Vlachs in the Danubian region are mentioned by Anna Komnene in The Alexiad when the Cumans crossed the Danube around 1094.
• In 1154, the Arabic geographer Al-Idrisi referred to the entire region from the Morava River to the Osam River – which encompasses Pomoravlje and part of western Bulgaria – as Getulia, meaning the land of the Getaj or Nomads, as the Sicilian merchants called them. The inhabitants were Slavs and Vlachs.
• In 1185, the Bulgarians and Vlachs (Romanians) revolted under the leadership of the boyars Peter and Asen, who were of Vlach origin. Their brother Kaloyan was crowned in Tarnovo by an envoy of Pope Innocent III as dominus blacorum et bulgarorum (Lord of the Vlachs and Bulgarians). Those from northern Bulgaria and Serbia spoke the same dialect as the Romanians north of the Danube – linguists call it Daco-Romanian. From their ranks rose those who initiated the anti-Byzantine rebellion at the end of the 12th century, led by the Asen brothers; thus, they were the standard-bearers of the political rebirth of the Bulgarian Empire. Today, only a few of their settlements remain in the northwestern part of Bulgaria and in Serbia, particularly in the Timok Valley (Timočka Krajina).
• The chronicler Ansbert writes that the crusaders: "in the great Bulgarian forest itself, which they entered while advancing from Braničevo on July 15, 1189, were ambushed by Greeks, Bulgarians, Serbs, and semi-barbarian Vlachs, who attacked them from hidden places with poisoned arrows by order of the Duke of Braničevo and the Byzantine Emperor."
• During the years 1202 and 1203, Prince Bellota of Braničevo (princeps Bellota) appears in historical sources, maintaining independent correspondence with Pope Innocent III. Bellota (rom. Balotă) was likely a Catholic and a relative of Kaloyan. There is a high probability that he was of Vlach origin—specifically belonging to the lineage of Kaloyan's mother—making him either his maternal uncle or grandfather.
• From the correspondence between Pope Innocent III and King Kaloyan in 1204, we learn of a dispute that Bulgaria had with Hungary regarding the land of Wallachia, located right on the border between Hungary and Bulgaria. The same papal register further attests to the key diplomatic role of Bishop Blaise of Braničevo (Blasius, episcopus Brandizuberensis), whom Kaloyan dispatched to Rome as his envoy and plenipotentiary.
• In 1211, Gervase of Tilbury, describing the very same area that the chronicler Ansbert had previously called the great Bulgarian forest, writes that: "From the parting of the Danube all the way to Constantinople is a twenty-four day journey to the southeast. First, namely, one encounters the Bulgarian desert, which is the land of the Vlachs (Wallachia)."
• In 1253, William of Rubruck writes: "Yes, and across the Danube too, towards Constantinople, Wallachia, which is the land of Asen, and Minor Bulgaria all the way to Slavonia, all pay tribute to the Tatars."
• Drman and Kudelin were two Bulgarian nobles, of Tatar or Vlach origin, who ruled Braničevo (the Danubian region) as semi-independent rulers at the end of the 13th century (1273–1291).
• From a letter in 1345 sent by Pope Clement VI to King Louis I of Hungary, it is mentioned that certain Vlachs of Hungary, Transylvania, Wallachia, and the land of Syrmia had converted to Catholicism.
• The title of the Wallachian voivodes in the period from 1389 to 1421, and from 1508 to 1638, read: "Lord of Ungro-Wallachia and the Danubian Region."
• In the 14th and 15th centuries, important migratory movements of the Vlach population took place from Kosovo and around the Vardar River toward the north, and they settled in the valleys of the Timok and Morava rivers. At the same time, another part of this Vlach element moved toward Niš, penetrated through the Nišava valley all the way to Sredna Gora in Bulgaria, and then from Sofia moved northwestward all the way to the Serbian border.
• In 1446, Pope Eugenius IV informed all the faithful that a numerous sect of Hussites existed in Moldavia, who had infected even a portion of the inhabitants of Hungary with their dogmas. For this reason, the pontiff appointed Fabian, a vicar of the Minorite order from Bosnia, and his successors, as lifelong inquisitors against heretics in Moldavia, Wallachia, Wallachia across the Danube, Bulgaria, Raška, and Slavonia.
• Around 1481, Martin Segon mentions the Vlachs in northeastern Serbia, saying of them: "The Vlachs are highlanders, a wild race of men—they are rich only in herds of livestock." and "The middle of the province is inhabited by Vlachs, of whom Ptolemy writes: 'Those who lie between are called Picenses', and much has been said about them above in the first travelogue."
• In the 15th and 16th centuries, following the Ottoman conquest of the Tsardom of Vidin and the Serbian Despotate, Ottoman defters and kanun-names recorded Vlach populations in the Braničevo and Vidin areas. In the Vidin region, there existed a system originating from the Byzantine period to which the Vlachs were subject. The Ottomans incorporated this system into their own administrative structure, creating a semi-military class termed filurciyan, who were exempt from regular taxes and paid one gold coin (florin/filuri) per household. Tasked with securing the border regions, the filurci were of Vlach origin.
• In 1651, Petrus Possinus, in his commentaries on the Vlachs from The Alexiad, says: "Blachi is the name of the people who inhabit Upper Moesia, who are today called Valachi (Vlachs)."
• Evliya Çelebi, in his description of the town of Fetislam (Kladovo) from 1666, states that: "The entire population speaks Bosnian and Turkish, and they also know the Vlach language."
• Luigi Ferdinando Marsigli says of the Vlachs who dwelt around the Danube in 1696: "The Vlachs differ from the Rascians in both customs and language, although they profess the same Greek religion and use the same Illyrian characters (Cyrillic) of theirs. They begin to inhabit the banks of the Danube that originate from the ridges of the Haemus and Carpathian mountains, and they do not like to live in the plains, except in two provinces, Wallachia and Moldavia. They truly descend from the ancient Romans and boast that they are Romans, calling themselves by the corrupted name Ruminest; and their language is a corrupted Latin or Italic."
• In 1714, Dimitrie Cantemir says of the Vlach people: "The entire Roman-Vlach nation is today scattered across six regions: Moldavia, Wallachia, Bessarabia, Transylvania, Moesia, and Epirus in Greece" and that "Moesia follows the right bank of the Danube from the Iron Gates all the way to the Black Sea, in it, the towns, market squares, and villages are full of Romanians, mixed with Turks and Serbs."
• The Ottoman census defters of the Sanjak of Vidin from 1721/2 and 1723/4, as well as the censuses of Krajina and Ključ from 1740 and 1741, provide unequivocal onomastic evidence of the presence of the Vlach population in the area of present-day northwestern Bulgaria and eastern Serbia. An analysis of the personal names recorded in these historical sources enables precise mapping of Vlach settlements, pointing to a clear demographic and ethnic connection between the population of that time and the contemporary population inhabiting the same areas today.
• In 1774, Samuil Micu wrote that: "The Vlach nation, which inhabits Wallachia, Moldavia, Transylvania, Hungary, the Banat, parts of the provinces of Bessarabia, Bulgaria, Albania, and Podolia, as well as New Serbia subject to the Russian Empire, is the true and original descendant of the Roman colonists. This is confirmed by their language, customs, spirit, and character.
• In 1787 in Vienna, by imperial decree, a war proclamation ("patent") was drafted for the population in Turkey, issued in three similar forms: one for the Serbs, another for the Vlachs, and a third for the Turks, promising the Emperor’s protection to the population. The Vlach population was the only one that showed a friendly disposition toward the Turks.
• From the census of Vlachs conducted in the Principality of Serbia in 1850, there were 104,807 Vlachs, making up 10.95% of the total population of Serbia.

Language

The Vlachs speak a group of archaic Romanian varieties sometimes known as "Vlach" in Serbia. According to data from the 2022 census, 23,216 people declared Vlach as their mother tongue.

Romanian is not in use by the local administration in municipalities where members of the Vlach minority represent more than 15% of the population, where it would be allowed according to Serbian law, such as Kučevo and Žagubica (with Vlachs constituting 16.4% and 15% of population of the municipality, respectively). This is mostly because of a lack of teachers and because Romanian is more of an oral than a written language among Vlachs. Since 2012, there have been continuous efforts to standardize Vlach Romanian in a written form, and the teaching of Vlach Romanian has started in schools. While the Vlach Romanian standard written language is under development, the National Council of the Vlach National Minority in Serbia adopted in 2010 the use of Serbian as the official language and Romanian as the literary language. In 2012, the council decided to adopt a proposition on written and oral Romanian and started to work towards its standardization.

Religion

Most Vlachs are Orthodox Christians and have been part of the Serbian Orthodox Church since the 19th century. The 2006 Serbian Law on Churches and Religious Organizations did not recognize the Romanian Orthodox Church as a traditional church, as it had received permission from the Serbian Orthodox Church to have canonical authority only among Romanians in Banat, but not in eastern Serbia. At Malajnica (Mălainița), Bojan Aleksandrović, a Vlach priest belonging to the Romanian Orthodox Church encountered deliberately-raised administrative barriers when he attempted to build a church. In 2009, however, the Serbian state recognized the canonical authority of the Romanian Orthodox Church over the Vlach population in eastern Serbia.

Symbols

On 20 August 2025, at a meeting of the Vlach National Council in Požarevac, the council approved a flag and coat of arms to represent the Vlachs. The flag features four colors: red, blue, gold and white, arranged horizontally from top to bottom. According to the council, the red, blue and white represent the colors of the Serbian flag, while the gold symbolizes spiritual wealth, the sun, warmth and the historical origin in eastern Serbia. In the center, over a gold base, is a stylized white circle with nine rays emanating upwards from it, representing a sun. Below the sun are two mountains, shaped by two triangles, representing eastern Serbia and the region of Homolje (Homolie), where most Vlachs live. A stylized white line runs between the mountains, which can symbolize a river, a path or a connection between tradition and future.

The coat of arms is a shield with a blue field, which symbolizes justice, faith and freedom. It is framed by a red line, representing strength, courage and the historical struggle to preserve identity. Over the blue field is a double-headed heraldic eagle. Its wings are extended, symbolizing protection and power; and the eagle is white, representing purity and spiritual exaltation. That it is two-headed symbolizes unity between tradition and modernity and connection with the cultural influences of the Eastern and Western worlds. On the eagle's chest is a smaller red coat of arms. It features a sun, representing life, renovation and light; and is gold in color, signifying hope and the permanence of Vlach identity. The sun rises from two green mountains which represent eastern Serbia, the Vlachs' natural and spiritual homeland. Above the eagle, at the top of the shield, is the inscription Vlahi ("Vlachs") in bright color.

In addition, the Vlachs have the holidays of the Vlach Language Day on 24 January, the National Council's Feast Day of Saint Simeon the Myroblyte on 24 February and the National Council Day on 6 December. Regarding the Vlach Language Day (Zăua ljimbi Vlahilor), 24 January was the day in which, in 2012, in a meeting in Petrovac (Piatra Mlavei), the Vlach National Council adopted an alphabet in both Latin and Cyrillic for the Vlachs' language. And in the case of the National Council Day, on 6 December 2010, in its second ever meeting, held in Žagubica, the Vlach National Council adopted a document titled "Declaration of the Vlach National Council on the realization and advancement of the rights of the Vlach national community".

Vlach magic

The relative isolation of the Vlachs has permitted the survival of various pre-Christian religious customs and beliefs that are frowned upon by the Orthodox Church. Vlach magic rituals are well-known across modern Serbia. The Vlachs celebrate the ospăț (hospitium, in Latin), called in Serbian praznik or slava. The customs of the Vlachs are very similar to those from Southern Romania (Wallachia).