Балчик

The White City with the palace of Queen Mary and the richest botanical garden in the Balkans.

Balchik arose in the 6th–5th centuries BC. as a Greek colony founded by settlers probably associated with the Ionian city of Miletus. Its original name was Krunoi ("springs"), because of the numerous gushing springs in the rocky shore. At the end of the 3rd century BC the city was renamed Dionysopolis - in honor of the god Dionysus, and the famous Temple of Cybele was later discovered here. In the Middle Ages, the settlement was known as Karvuna (or Balik), and in the 14th century it fell within the boundaries of the Dobruja (Karvuna) despotism of the rulers Balik and Dobrotitsa — the modern name Balchik is derived from the name of the former. During the Ottoman rule, Balchik was a modest fishing town living off the sea and viticulture on the terraced hills around the bay, and the characteristic white limestone of the surrounding area gradually transformed it into the "white city". After the Treaty of Bucharest in 1913, the city, along with the whole of Southern Dobrudja, entered the borders of Romania. In 1921, the Romanian Queen Maria of Edinburgh visited Balchik, fell in love with the place and between 1924 and 1934 built her summer residence here - the villa "The Quiet Nest", designed by Italian architects, with an eclectic mix of Old Bulgarian, Byzantine, Moorish and Transylvanian styles. With the Krai Agreement of 1940, Southern Dobrudja, including Balchik, returned to Bulgaria. In 1955, academician Daki Yordanov founded the Botanical Garden of Sofia University on the grounds surrounding the palace, which today covers 194 decares and has the richest collection of cacti and succulents in the Balkans. Today, Balchik is a resort and artistic city, attracting artists and tourists with its palace, gardens, rocky coast and old windmills preserved in the architectural complex of the coastal area; the writer Ivaylo Petrov lived and worked in the city for many years.