The most recent trip to the small town of Balchik in Bulgaria reminded me of a part of the history of my country, Romania. It seems strange that a trip to a foreign country can remind me of the history of my people. In fact, it's not strange at all. This small region, called South Dobrogea (or Dobrich, in Bulgaria) was under Romanian administration for almost half a century, in the first part of the last century. Following a Balkan war, wars were almost always followed by land claims, foreign occupations and retreats. History is complicated, most of the time it is subjective and I don't think I could present a truth here. After 1940, this region returned to Bulgaria and I think that's fine.
I believe that the interference between peoples, between different cultures, is useful and brings value. That's what I think happened with this region, but especially with the small coastal town of Balchik.
Maybe not everyone agrees with this vision but I want to bring the argument given by logic.
A small provincial town where a queen builds a summer residence can not help but take advantage of this event!
In the beginning were the painters
Even before the arrival of the queen, the first to discover this town were the Romanian painters. Painters, sculptors, writers. I don't know who were the first, but this oriental-looking city, the very special light given by the surrounding white hills has become a vacation spot for artists and politicians in Romania, especially in Bucharest, which is the capital and is less than 300 km away.
Curious, Queen Maria of Romania, wanted to see the place where her subjects, artists, businessmen and politicians, spent their summers. After seeing Balchik, she instantly fell in love with relief, sea, air, light, sun and decided to build a small summer residence. He bought a large area of land and in a few years the castle was built, which he called the Quiet Nest, and a huge garden.
Now it is the most important tourist attraction of the city, together with the botanical garden.
Why did I say that establishing the queen's residence brought benefits to the city (I was to say, only benefits, but I don't know if that's the case, only city dwellers can say that)?
Because following the example of the queen, the most influential politicians and businessmen built imposing villas here, important buildings were built for the city administration. The most famous Romanian architect of the moment, Henriete Delavrancea, built many of the important houses and even the town hall building, which is now the History Museum.
I can't hide the fact that I really like this city on the Black Sea coast and that I usually travel here at least twice a year. Last year I went three times, and yesterday I returned from the second trip of this year, fortunately just a few days before Bulgaria entered the red zone of covid and imposed travel restrictions.
Every time I visit the palace and its gardens, I know them very well and yet I can't stop repeating this. This year I visited the palace on a special date, on the feast of St. Mary, in the Orthodox Christian religion, that is, on the day of the Queen's name. Given this significance of the day, I especially visited the chapel, in fact a miniature church, which was built, at the Queen's request, to pray and be silent.
This small church has a special significance. Queen Maria loved her house and garden in Balchic enormously, it was the place where she was the happiest. For this reason she wanted her heart to be kept in this chapel after her death. I forgot to say that the chapel was built in Byzantine style and was called "Stella Maris", meaning the starfish.
Knowing that in this small chapel was kept for a time the heart of the queen, in a silver box, makes all visitors, that is not all, only the most sensitive to history and the most romantic, to walk shyly inside.
The small church impresses with its simple architecture and the way it is integrated in nature. A detour around the church shows us the construction...
... and we look for all the information on different inscriptions on the walls.
History has not been gentle with the Queen and her wish has not been fully fulfilled. The queen died in 1938, her heart was laid in this chapel and her body buried in Romania.
After only two years, this region was returned to Bulgaria and the queen's heart was taken to Romania, to Bran Castle. After another seven years, the monarchy was abolished in Romania and the box with the queen's heart finally arrived in the Museum of Romanian History.
For #MarketFriday by @dswigle!
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