A short vacation that happened last week in the neighboring country of Romania, Bulgaria, took me to Balchik. This small and old town on the Black Sea coast, my favorite.
I described this beautiful and almost unexpected joy in this blog Why I'm sorry I'll die in the next ten years ... Anytime! but I couldn't show everything I saw and felt and I have to detail in several posts, this being the second.
The Black Sea is generous with both countries, Romania and Bulgaria, but in Bulgaria the coastline is more beautiful than in Romania. I say this with regret but also with the joy that I can easily visit the neighboring country. Both countries are members of the European Union and crossing the border is no longer a problem for anyone.
These two countries being neighboring, of course, they also have a part of common history. In Balchik there is an example that supports this statement...
For a start, I have to say who Queen Maria of Romania was. She was the most beloved queen of Romania because she contributed a lot to the modernization and emancipation of the country. She was a support and guide to King Ferdinand, her husband. She was a model of women's emancipation at that time, she loved and promoted the arts and she was also an extremely efficient politician.
Of course, monarchs do not do politics but they can influence it, especially if they have the charisma of Queen Mary.
For more information about the Queen I think Wikipedia is much more informed and I have to call it now.
Maria of Romania (b. October 29, 1875, Eastwell Park, Ashford, Kent, England - d. July 18, 1938, Pelisor Castle, Sinaia, Romania) was a crown princess and the second queen of Romania, as the wife of the Prince of the Crown later became King Ferdinand I of Romania. Maria, born Marie Alexandra Victoria of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, was a Grand Princess of Great Britain and Ireland, the niece of Queen Victoria of Great Britain.
His parents were Alfred Ernest Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Duke of Edinburgh, and his mother, Maria Alexandrovna Romanova, Grand Duchess of Russia, the only daughter of Tsar Alexander II of Russia
Source
The name castle is exaggerated and is used only because it belonged to the royal family. In fact, it is a villa with white walls and covered with tiles, built between 1924 and 1929. The architecture is influenced by the Ottoman style and the Bulgarian houses. It was built according to the Queen's wishes.
In 1940 the castle became the property of the Bulgarian royal family, in 1944 the Soviet army was stationed here and on this occasion it was destroyed and looted. In 1950 it was transformed into a rest home for Bulgarian Communist Party activists and in 1960 it was transformed into a museum.
A fee of 3 euros is paid for visiting the castle. Along with the castle you must visit the Botanical Garden and the ticket for that costs 5 euros. They cannot be visited separately and this does not seem right to me but it cannot be negotiated.
When the castle was built, right in front of it was a small cliff where the waves of the sea hit. In 1950, a dam and a concrete alley were built, which now separates the Palace from the sea.
The castle has three levels, the ground floor was assigned to King Ferdinand. He rarely came to the castle in Balchik because his duties as monarch kept him almost always in Bucharest. On the ground floor there is also a smoking room where the king and queen had long discussions over a Turkish coffee and a cigarette. Rare moments of relaxation and delight of the eyes with the wonderful view of the sea!
Very close is an alley much loved by Queen Maria. The alley of the centuries!
The alley is paved with millstones, twenty millstones each symbolizing a century. The queen demanded, by will, that after a century another millstone be laid. The columns of this alley were given as a gift by King Alexander of Serbia, his son-in-law.
Finally, the entrance to the castle. Like I said, just a vacation villa. The dimensions of the construction do not correspond at all with the opulence specific to the royal houses. The next two levels belonged exclusively to the queen. This was her quiet nest!
We missed a guide to tell us about the queen's life in that place but fortunately everywhere we found explanations written in four languages: Bulgarian, English, Romanian and Russian. For all visitors to understand.
Level one seems to have been a kind of kitchen ... although I doubt the queen was attracted to cooking. I think that when I look at this stove fireplace. Most likely she kept the food warm there. In this room there are no other objects left from the original house, as I said, this villa was looted of all goods and very few were recovered. In order for this room not to remain empty, painting exhibitions of artists from Balchik are organized here.
A beautiful spiral staircase leads to the upper floor, the queen's rest and relaxation room. The main part of the castle.
Living room. Fortunately, there are several objects that belonged to the queen. This area of the house was definitely the place where the queen spent the most time (when she stayed in the house, because she used to spend most of the day in the beautiful gardens).
The simple room with white painted walls is simply furnished and with a lot of artistic sense. The desk, the table, the chairs and the rocking chair on which the queen rested and dreamed. A small corner of the room with a sofa before entering the bathroom.
The bathroom. A bathroom as simple as the whole house. Hard to imagine it was a queen's bath. When I think of kings and emperors, I imagine opulence and wealth. I haven't seen it here and yet it's about the niece of Queen Victoria and Tsar Alexander II of Russia.
The other rooms no longer had furniture and because of this they were arranged as a kind of museum of antiquities. The Black Sea has been crossed by Greek navigators since antiquity and many ships have been sunk by extremely strong storms, so many vestiges were found under water. They filled the museums and we also have here some specimens of amphorae and different clay vessels in which they transported wine and oil.
Also, on the walls can be admired the original icons from the castle chapel called Stella Maris. In this chapel was deposited a box containing the queen's heart, after her death in 1938.
The last object I saw was the queen's wardrobe. Incredible, my grandmother had something similar. That doesn't mean my grandmother had any blue blood. It just means that Queen Maria of Romania was a great personality of her time, emancipated and modest!
The third floor terrace with a wonderful sea view. The visit to Balchik Castle is coming to an end. I saw a castle far from the classic cold of castles, a house pleasant to be inhabited and full of shadow and personality of the most revered queen of Romania, Queen Maria!
We leave the Castle with regret and a strange feeling because it's in a different country than the country where the queen ruled. This is our history.
Such a museum ... visiting it is extremely interesting and makes you think about the world and life.
Where are all these kings and queens who once ruled over our countries? How was their life when they were no longer in power? For some, learning with luxury and opulence may have been difficult to adapt to a modest life.
Queen Mary would have done well for sure. She got used to living decently and modestly, as we saw at this castle on the shores of the Black Sea and surrounded by wonderful gardens.
This walk through the former house of the queen, of the kings of Romania before the world war made me understand what a beautiful and beneficial era we live in now.
We do not realize that we live better than the most important and rich people of the past have lived.
The evolution of society and technology have given us a much more pleasant and interesting life than they had. I have friends who have bigger houses than this castle and my bathroom at home is better equipped than the queen's bathroom a hundred years ago!
The royal domain in Balchik means much more than this castle, there are many other buildings. There are six in total, one for each of the Queen's children. Of course, the gardens. The most beautiful botanical garden in this part of Europe! I couldn't cover them all and that's why I will write two more blogs. Soon!
A well-known Romanian vlogger, Marian Borcea, made a transmission from Balchik and that starts with the castle. Coincidentally, his filming was on August 21, the day I left. The commentary is in Romanian, so it is not helpful, but in this film you can see the castle and the rest of the Balchik tourist area.
It can be helpful for a better understanding and knowledge of the place. I recommend you watch the movie if you want more about Balchik.
