Place in Dobrich, Bulgaria
Balchik
(
Bulgarian
:
Балчик
[b???t??ik]
;
Romanian
:
Balcic
,
Turkish
:
Balcık
)
is a
Black Sea coastal
town
and
seaside resort
in the
Southern Dobruja
area of northeastern
Bulgaria
. It is in
Dobrich Province
, 35 km southeast of
Dobrich
and 42 km northeast of
Varna
. It sprawls scenically along hilly terraces descending from the
Dobruja
plateau to the sea, and is often called "The White City" because of its white hills.
Balchik's centre
Etymology
[
edit
]
Under the
Ottoman Empire
, the town came to be known with its present name, which perhaps derived from a
Gagauz
word meaning "small town".
[4]
Another theory suggests that it is named after the medieval ruler
Balik
, brother of
Dobrotitsa
, after whom the city of
Dobrich
is named.
[
citation needed
]
History
[
edit
]
Antiquity: Thracians and Greeks
[
edit
]
Founded as a
Thracian
settlement, it was later colonised by the
ancient Greek
Ionians
with the name
Krounoi
(
Ancient Greek
:
Κρουνο?
), later renamed as
Dionysopolis
(
Ancient Greek
:
Διονυσ?πολι?
) after the discovery of a statue of
Dionysus
in the sea.
[5]
Early Middle Ages: Byzantines and Bulgarians
[
edit
]
Later it became a
Greek
-
Byzantine
and
Bulgarian
fortress.
Karvuna
is the old Bulgarian name of the ancient Dionysopol.
[6]
[7]
The external resemblance to the name of the modern town of Kavarna is an occasion for some local historians to identify Karvuna with Kavarna, but the archaeological and historical data are not in favour of this proposal. Karvuna was the capital of the Karvuna region - so called Dobrogea (
Dobrudja
) in the Middle Ages until the arrival of the Turks. The remains of the castle of the boyars Balik and Dobrotitsa were found above the city hospital of Balchik in the "Horizon" district (Gemidzhiya), but were almost erased by natural processes. In the Vasil Levski neighbourhood there are remains of the great fortress of Karvuna, built by the Byzantines and used by them and by the Bulgarians during the
First Bulgarian Kingdom
. Later, due to difficulties in defending the vast fortress located in the plain and the lack of a view of the sea,
[
citation needed
]
the Bulgarians built a fort of which only modest remains are preserved on the highest hill of the city, the Dzheni Bair or Ekhoto ('Echo') hill.
[8]
[9]
The earthen rampart behind the ditch dates to the late 12th century, with various habitation-related findings from the 11th-15th centuries.
[8]
[9]
The
boyar
Balik lived in the said castle opposite it on the hill above the present hospital, south of the great Kavarna fortress, which the centuries have now completely obliterated.
Dobrotitsa
(r. 1347?86), after ruling for some time here, moved the capital of the
Despotate of Karvuna
from Karvuna to
Kaliakra
.
[
citation needed
]
Ottoman period
[
edit
]
Under the Ottomans, the town came to be known by its present name.
[4]
Modern period
[
edit
]
Cherno More ('Black Sea') Street in the centre
Part of Bulgaria (1878-1913)
[
edit
]
After the
liberation of Bulgaria
in 1878, Balchik developed as centre of a rich agricultural region, wheat-exporting port, and district (
okoliya
) town, and later, as a major tourist destination with the beachfront resort of
Albena
to its south.
Part of Romania (1913-1940)
[
edit
]
Queen Marie's 1925 "The Quiet Nest" palace, the gate flanked by sea mines
After the
Second Balkan War
, in 1913, the town became part of the
Kingdom of Romania
, with its name spelled
Balcic
. It was regained by Bulgaria during World War I (1916?1919), but Romania restored its authority when hostilities in the region ceased.
During
Romania
's administration, the
Balchik Palace
was the favourite summer residence of
Queen Marie
of Romania and her immediate family. The town is the site of Marie's Oriental villa, the place where her heart was kept, in accordance with her last wishes, until 1940 (when the
Treaty of Craiova
awarded the region back to Bulgaria). It was then moved to
Bran Castle
, in central Romania. Today, the Balchik Palace and the adjacent Balchik Botanical Garden are the town's most popular landmarks and a popular tourist sightseeing destination.
The Balchik Botanical Garden
During the inter-war period, Balchik was also a favorite destination for Romanian avant-garde painters, lending his name to an informal school of post-impressionist painters, the Balcic School of Painting,
[10]
which is central in the development of Romanian 20th-century painting. Many works of the artists comprising the group depict the town's houses and the Turkish inhabitants, as well as the sea.
Back to Bulgaria (1940)
[
edit
]
In 1940, just before the outbreak of
World War II
in the region and in the wider context of Hitler's intervention and the
Second Vienna Award
, Balchik was ceded back by Romania to Bulgaria by the terms of the
Treaty of Craiova
. This included an exchange of populations by ethnic groups.
Population
[
edit
]
The city's population was 11,051 people (data from
National Statistics Institute - Bulgaria
, 2018). The total population of Balchik municipality was 19,331.
According to an estimate by Bulgarian historian Rayna Gavrilova, the Bulgarian population before 1878 was only around 10%.
[11]
St Paraskeva
(Sveta Petka Tarnovska)
Eastern Orthodox
church. Started by the Romanians in 1935 (architect
?tefan Bal?
[
ro
]
), finished and inaugurated by the Bulgarians in 1954.
[12]
The ethnic composition has gradually changed from mostly
Gagauz
and
Tatar
/
Turkish
to predominantly Bulgarian. According to the latest (2011) census data, Balchik's ethnic composition is the following:
[13]
[14]
- Bulgarians
: 7,916 (72.9%)
- Turks
: 1,715 (15.8%)
- Gypsies
: 954 (8.8%)
- Others: 191 (1.8%)
- Indefinable: 79 (0.7%)
- Undeclared: 755 (6.5%)
Culture
[
edit
]
An imitation of
Laszlo Marton
's
Little Princess
statue
Held each year since 1991, "The Process – Space Art Festival" is an annual international festival of
contemporary art
, which takes place over two weeks in June.
[15]
Balchik Palace also hosts the "In the Palace International Short Film Festival".
Music
[
edit
]
Held annually each summer since 2006 in the nearby town of Kavarna, the
Kavarna Rock Fest
hosts top-name bands for a three-day festival. Previous acts have included
Motorhead
,
Twisted Sister
,
Motley Crue
,
Scorpions
,
Alice Cooper
,
Deep Purple
, and the
Michael Schenker Group
.
[16]
For the last few years,
[
when?
]
the mayor has cancelled the Kavarna Rock Fest due to different music preference.
[
whose?
]
Sports
[
edit
]
Balchik is becoming well known internationally as a golfing destination. There are three 18-hole championship
golf
courses within the local vicinity, two designed by
Gary Player
- Thracian Cliffs GC and BlackSeaRama GC; and one designed by
Ian Woosnam
- Lighthouse GC. A fourth 18-hole golf course is currently in the planning stages.
[17]
Trivia
[
edit
]
Twin towns - sister cities
[
edit
]
Balchik is
twinned
with:
[19]
Gallery
[
edit
]
-
Coastal view with private hotels
-
The coast
-
The main street going down the harbour
-
Balchik Palace, pool and portico
-
Balchik Palace, the gardens
-
Balchik Palace, waterfall
See also
[
edit
]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to
Balchik
.
References
[
edit
]
- ^
(in English)
http://www.nsi.bg/en/content/6704/population-districts-municipalities-place-residence-and-sex#cont
Population by districts, municipalities, place of residence and sex Bulgarian National Statistical Institute ? towns in 2018]
Archived
July 5, 2019, at the
Wayback Machine
- ^
?WorldCityPopulation“
- ^
"България / B?lgarija"
.
mashke.org
(in Bulgarian)
. Retrieved
9 April
2018
.
- ^
a
b
"ПРОИЗХОД НА ИМЕТО БАЛЧИК"
[Origin of the Name Balchik].
BolgNames.com
. Archived from
the original
on 2007-09-29.
- ^
Mogens Herman Hansen, Thomas Heine Nielsen (2004, 1st edition).
An inventory of archaic and classical poleis
. p. 932. An Investigation Conducted by The Copenhagen Polis Centre for the Danish National Research Foundation.
Oxford University Press
.
ISBN
0-19-814099-1
- ^
Georgiev, P.
The name Karvuna and the proto-Bulgarians
. Starobulgaristika, 2002, № 2, pp. 70-82.
- ^
Ivan Bozhilov, Marin Dimitrov (1990).
Balchik, antiquity and modernity
.
- ^
a
b
"Балчик - Землено укрепление на хълма "Джени баир"
"
[Balchik: the earthen fortification on Dzheni Bair hill],
Bulgariancastles.com
, archived from
the original
on 2016-09-15
, retrieved
2016-08-22
- ^
a
b
"Балчик ? укрепление Джени баир"
[Balchik: Dzheni Bair fortification].
Bulgariancastles.com
. 22 August 2020
. Retrieved
12 February
2024
.
- ^
Balcica M?ciuc? (2001).
Balcic
. Bucure?ti: Editura Universalia.
- ^
Gavrilova, Raina:"Bulgarian urban culture in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries", p. 47.
- ^
The "St. Petka Tarnovska" Church, Balchik
. Accessed 12 Feb 2024.
- ^
(in Bulgarian)
Population on 01.02.2011 by provinces, municipalities, settlements and age; National Statistical Institute
Archived
September 8, 2013, at the
Wayback Machine
- ^
Population by province, municipality, settlement and ethnic identification, by 01.02.2011; Bulgarian National Statistical Institute
Archived
2013-05-21 at the
Wayback Machine
(in Bulgarian)
- ^
"Process - Space Art Festival"
.
processspace.net
. Retrieved
9 April
2018
.
- ^
"Kavarna Rock Fest 2016: First 3 Bands Confirmed - Novinite.com - Sofia News Agency"
.
novinite.com
. Retrieved
9 April
2018
.
- ^
"New Golf Complex May Be Built near Bulgaria's Balchik - Novinite.com - Sofia News Agency"
.
novinite.com
. Retrieved
9 April
2018
.
- ^
Hotels in Bulgaria project surge in Russian tourist arrivals at Balchik airport
, The Sofia Echo, 8. August 2011.
- ^
"Международно сътрудничество"
.
balchik.bg
(in Bulgarian). Balchik
. Retrieved
2019-10-31
.
Bibliography
[
edit
]
External links
[
edit
]
|
---|
1,000,000+
| | |
---|
300,000+
| |
---|
200,000+
| |
---|
100,000+
| |
---|
50,000+
| |
---|
20,000+
| |
---|
10,000+
| |
---|
5,000+
| |
---|
2,000+
| |
---|
1,000+
| |
---|
500+
| |
---|
499-
| |
---|
Notes
|
- city status after the census of 01.02.2011:
Ignatievo, Kran
|
---|
|
---|
|
Villages
| | |
---|
Landmarks
| |
---|
Culture
|
- Balfest
- Protses-Prostranstvo
|
---|
Notable people
| |
---|