Първият опит за откриване на френско консулство в София през 1842 г.
The First Attempt to Establish a French Consulate in Sofia in 1842

Summary/Abstract: The article presents the first attempts of French diplomacy to establish its consulate in Sofia. The article is based on documents which haven’t been used so far, i. e. correspondence exchanged in the period 1842–1843 by the French Minister of Foreign Affairs François Guizot, the ambassador in Constantinople baron de Bourqueney and François Duclos who was appointed consul general in Sofia, though he didn’t assume office. These letters are now in the Diplomatic Archive of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Paris („Quai d’Orsay“). The documents used reveal François Guizot’s strong wish to establish the diplomatic mission in Sofia, as well as baron de Bourqueney’s reserved and insufficiently firm stand on the issue. The Sublime Porte refused to issue a berat to Duclos on the grounds that in the inner parts of the Empire, where this central Balkan city was situated, no state had its representative, and if The Porte gave its consent to France, it would have to do the same for the other Great Powers as well. Following the signing of the bilateral trade contracts between Turkey and the European countries in 1838–1841, the door slowly began to open for the foreign consul residences in the Empire. However, more than thirty years would be necessary to carry out the plans of the French for Sofia, moreover in a time of new turbulent events. Le Gay was appointed to the office as late as in the end of 1874. Some interesting aspects of Alexander Exarch’s activity – a great Bulgarian National Revival figure, who was involved in the events accounted for in the article, are also revealed.

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