Balchik and the Queen's Castle

My Sea. I don't have a sea, of course not, nor do I know of anyone who does. My sea is just the name of a folder full of photos. Photos I always take on trips to the sea. My most recent mini vacation to the sea was only a month and a half ago.

I already miss the sea. There's not much chance of seeing the sea again before September and the only way to quench this need for the sea is to open the "My Sea" folder and look at the photos...

Balchik and the Queen's Castle

This time, from the multitude of images that passed in front of my eyes, I chose, again, those of Balchik and, implicitly, Queen Mary's Castle.

Balchik is a small town on the Black Sea with a small port from which grain is exported.

Now it is also a charming resort, sought after by lovers of the sea, relaxation, and walking, by those interested in history and... Romanians. As I am.

Why are the Romanians interested in Balchik?

Primarily because of the Castle and the gardens around it. The castle was built by Queen Mary of Romania, who chose this small town on the Black Sea in Bulgaria.

It seems strange that the royal family of one country (Romania) would choose a place in another country (Bulgaria) as their residence. The explanation is simple and has to do with the realities of the time when the castle was built, i.e. between the two world wars, when this region of Bulgaria belonged to Romania. Until 1940.

The castle was built between 1926 and 1930, according to her plans and under her guidance. Its architecture is a combination of the Bulgarian house style with the addition of a minaret, both choices being a tribute to the Bulgarian and Turkish inhabitants of Balchik. Queen Mary died in 1938, so she only enjoyed the place for a few years.

When the castle was built, the sea reached up to the fence of the royal domain. In the 1950s, a terrace and a pier were built, which pushed the sea out, and a promenade was built along which hotels, restaurants, and cafés. It is now the main place for tourists to walk.

The castle or at least the minaret is visible from afar and invites to be visited.

I don't know the number of short trips to Balchik. It's my favorite place and whenever I had three days off (and enough money) I went there. Each time I visited both the castle and its extensive gardens. Wonderful gardens.

This place is like a magnet for tourists, who, by the way, do not have much to do in Balchik. There are thousands of tourists visiting this place every day.

The gardens are very extensive and diverse but this time the interest was in the castle. So we looked for the way to it.

At the end of a long alley, on one of the terraces of the garden, we saw the castle. But up there, we saw other interesting, beautiful places where you can buy many souvenirs and small art objects.

This is a marble armchair. I didn't quite understand if it was a copy or even from the Roman Empire, a senator's armchair. It was where the queen used to watch the sea. It is also a tourist attraction, many, I mean most of the tourists who come here take, of course, photos sitting on this chair. Or rather, they take selfies or are photographed by friends or relatives.

The armchair, of course, had to be close to the castle. The entrance to the castle follows and a group of tourists wait to start visiting it.

In the beginning, right in the entrance hall, there are several panels with information about the castle and the queen. So that visitors know the history of the place and can easily understand what they are about to see.

The family tree of Queen Mary of Romania.

_{Maria of Romania (b. 29 October 1875, Eastwell Park, Ashford, Kent, England - d. 18 July 1938, Pelisor Castle, Sinaia, Kingdom of Romania) was a Crown Princess and the second Queen of Romania, as the wife of the Prince who later became King Ferdinand I of Romania. She was the mother of King Charles II. Maria, born Marie Alexandra Victoria of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, was a Princess of Great Britain and Ireland and the granddaughter of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom.
Her parents were Alfred Ernest Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Duke of Edinburgh, and her mother, Maria Alexandrovna Romanova, Grand Duchess of Russia, the only daughter of Tsar Alexander II of Russia.Source}

The open door and the red arrow show the first room that can be visited. There is no original furniture, it is just an empty room in which various painting exhibitions of local painters are set up. Not exactly what I expected to see.

Only a fireplace - oven is part of the original furnishings of this villa and probably here was the kitchen or a dining place. The small spiral staircase leads to the room on the next level.

At the top of the stairs, there are two possibilities and a mirror. The queen's mirror, I've been informed, is the queen's mirror. In the mirror in which the queen used to look in the past are now reflected three characters, visitors of the castle, two ladies who agreed to come with me on this trip, and me, the narrator, and the amateur photographer. My wife and a good old friend of ours.

The two possibilities are to visit the Queen's bathroom and living room. We started with the bathroom.

As you can see, the bathroom is small and unspectacular, although it was a modern bathroom at the time. It had a water basin at the top, a basin that could be heated. Still, far from today's comfort. We can consider that we now live better than the royal families of a hundred years ago!

Before visiting the living room, we saw some small rooms, I don't know what they were originally, but now they have Orthodox icons and various old objects brought from the bottom of the sea.

Queen Mary, after becoming queen, had to adopt the religion of the Romanians, which is Orthodox Christianity, although she was a practitioner of the Bahai religion.

The most important room of the palace is the living room in which there is also a bed.

This is the only room that appears to have furniture that belonged to the Queen. I have serious doubts that this is true and I'll tell you why I think so...

_{When Cadrilat was returned to Bulgaria by the Treaty of Craiova in September 1940, the castle passed from the Romanian branch of the Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen family to the Bulgarian branch of the Saxe-Coburg-Gotha family (from which Queen Mary was descended). In September 1944, the Soviet Army was billeted in the castle, which was completely ransacked, including the doors and windows. In the 1950s, the Bulgarian Communist Party decided to renovate and turn the castle into a "rest house" for its activists. In the 1960s it was turned into a museum, as the Bulgarian cultural authorities tried to get furniture, paintings, and icons in the style of those that appeared in the few photographs of the castle's interior as it originally looked.Source}

It's obvious that it's just a reworking of the interior with furniture similar to what the Queen had.

This is what can be seen in the Castle. The exit is through the roof balcony on the second level of the building. An ideal place to watch the sea and the surroundings.

The gardens around the castle are built on terraces because they are built on the slope of a hill. The terraces are reinforced with stone walls and they give a unique view of these gardens.

The exit from this complex of gardens, castle, and other buildings, the six villas made for the queen's six children, is almost a labyrinth of walls, terraces, and stairs. It's a fairytale place, a delight to spend a good few hours exploring.

If you travel to Bulgaria and arrive in Balchik you must visit the domain, a former royal domain of an important queen from the eastern part of Europe, a smart, educated, and modern woman. Also, an artist for whom beauty always came first.

Located just 40 km from Varna, Bulgaria's largest port and, I believe, second largest city, and in an area of the Bulgarian coastline full of Black Sea resorts, Balchik invites to be visited, especially thanks to the:

Botanic Garden Balchik that includes Architectural park complex "The Palace", Protected Area Botanic Garden-Balchik, Garden "Nursery" and Expositional Greenhouse.

Visiting hours are according to the season, in the summer season it is 8.00 am - 8.00 pm and the visiting fee is $15.

But Balchik is not only this complex. It also means the Black Sea, places for walking and relaxing, good hotels, terraces, restaurants, and cafes. Even a history museum. I add some pictures for illustration.

We each have our own criteria when choosing places to visit, we have our own reasons for liking or disliking a place. The important thing is to be at least minimally informed before choosing. I hope this presentation helps!

Balchik Series
Below are all the episodes:

_{Feeling The Sea
My Friend, The Cat
Sea, Sun, Cats, and Souvenirs
People and Cacti, Botanical Garden in Balchik
Summer
Feeling The Sea (Two) - Balchik (Episode Six)
Balchik Lavender
Wild Nature In Balchik
We eat, drink and have a good time
Before The Castle
The Black Sea}

_{If you've read this far and aren't in the HIVE already, may I ask you one question? Do you want to earn for writing? Referral link for a FREE account HERE}