Albanians (, albantsi) are a minority ethnic group in Bulgaria (). Although according to the 2011 census they only numbered 220, their number in the Bulgarian lands was much larger in the past. Between the 15th and 17th century, groups of Albanians (both Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox by confession) settled in many parts of modern northern Bulgaria, with a less numerous group of settlers in southern Thrace. Afterwards they were fully assimilated in the neighboring Bulgarian communities. History Medieval Leka, a Paulician leader in 11th century Plovdiv may be the first medieval Albanian to be mentioned by his name. The attestation of a Paulician Albanian suggests that Paulicians had become popular among Albanian groups. Toponymy between Sofia and Plovdiv in the 10th and 11th centuries indicates that (Proto-)Albanian populations had migrated from their native lands to the eastern Balkans before the era of Leka. Proto-Romanian toponyms in Bulgaria are found close to Proto-Albanian toponyms and names in the same regions. Their geographical proximity is explained by their common migration to Bulgaria in the early Middle Ages as shepherd populations from a wide area from northern Albania to the central Balkans. Some of the earliest Albanian settlers in modern Bulgaria were the Roman Catholic ore miners in Kopilovtsi, Montana Province, a village in the vicinity of the larger mining centre Chiprovtsi. Kopilovtsi was settled between the 15th and the 17th century; a Catholic church was built in the early 17th century. Unlike the Catholic population in other villages of the region, Kopilovtsi's residents were of Albanian origin. In 1626, the Archbishop of Bar Pjetër Mazreku claims that part of the Bulgarian Catholics are Albanians (Albanesi), Saxons and Paulicians. According to Bulgarian bishop Petar Bogdan, Kopilovtsi had 1,200 Catholics of Albanian origin who were still speaking the Albanian language in 1640. In another report from 1647, Petar Bogdan also lists 1,200 Albanian Catholics in Kopilovtsi, but notes that they have started using Slavic instead. By 1658, Petar Bogdan notes that the over 1,500 Albanians in Kopilovtsi spoke Bulgarian and only retained some traces of their original language. Kopilovtsi, along with Chiprovtsi, was depopulated with the crushing of the Chiprovtsi Uprising in 1688. Albanian settlement in northern Bulgaria was not limited to Catholics—in a 1595 letter to the Prince of Transylvania, Ragusan merchant Pavel Đorđić notes that "in Bulgaria there are many villages inhabited by Albanians, from where 7,000 brave and well-trained