 In 1711–1712, Deva was settled by a group of Roman Catholic Bulgarian merchant refugees from the unsuccessful anti-Ottoman Chiprovtsi Uprising of 1688.The refugees were originally mostly from Chiprovtsi and Zhelezna, though also from the neighbouring Kopilovtsi and Klisura.However, the refugees came to Deva from Wallachia and from Alvinc (now "Vinţu de Jos", Romania), where a similar colony had been established in 1700.