Balchik

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Balchik
Балчик
Coat of arms of Balchik
Coat of arms
CountryBulgaria
Province (Oblast)Dobrich
Government
Elevation
199 m (653 ft)
Population
 (2009-12-31)[1][2][3]
 • City12,196
 • Urban
22,035
Time zoneUTC+2 (EET)
 • Summer (DST)UTC+3 (EEST)
Postal Code
9600
Area code0579

Balchik (Bulgarian: Балчик, Romanian: Balcic, Turkish: Balçık) is a Black Sea coastal town and seaside resort in the Southern Dobruja area of northeastern Bulgaria. It is located in Dobrich Province and is 42 km northeast of Varna. The town sprawls scenically along hilly terraces descending from the Dobruja plateau to the sea.

Etymology

The town is named after the medieval ruler Balik, brother of Dobrotitsa, after who is named the city of Dobrich.

History

Balchik's centre
Balchik's centre
The Balchik Botanical Garden

Founded as a Thracian settlement, it was later colonised by the Ionian ancient Greeks with the name Krounoi (renamed as Dionysopolis, after the discovery of a statue of Dionysus in the sea).[4] Later became a Greek-Byzantine and Bulgarian fortress. Under the Ottoman Empire, the town came to be known with its present name, which perhaps derived from a Gagauz word meaning "small town".[5] Another opinion is that its actual name derived from that of a local noble - Balik.

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. The ethnic composition gradually changed from mostly Gagauz and Tatar/Turkish to predominantly Bulgarian. According to an estimate by Bulgarian historian Rayna Gavrilova the Bulgarian population before 1878 was only around 10%.[6] According to the latest 2011 census data, Balchik's ethnic composition is the following:[7][8]

  • 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%)

After the Second Balkan War, in 1913, the town was renamed Balcic and became part of the Kingdom of Romania. It was regained by Bulgaria during World War I (1916–1919), but Romania restored its authority when hostilities in the region ceased. In 1940, just before the outbreak of World War II in the region, Balchik was ceded by Romania to Bulgaria by the terms of the Craiova Treaty.

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

During the inter-war period, Balchik was also a favourite destination for Romanian avant-garde painters, lending his name to an informal school of post-impressionist painters – the Balcic School of Painting [9]- which is central in the development of Romanian 20th-century painting. Many works of the artists composing the group depict the town's houses and the Tatar inhabitants, as well as the sea.

Culture

Art

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.[10]

Sports

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.[11]

Trivia

Twin towns and sister cities

See also: List of twin towns and sister cities in Bulgaria

Balchik is twinned with:[13]

Gallery

  • Centre
    Centre
  • Centre
    Centre
  • An Orthodox Church in Balchik
    An Orthodox Church in Balchik
  • Aerial overview of Balchik
    Aerial overview of Balchik
  • The Coast of Balchik
    The Coast of Balchik
  • Waterfall
    Waterfall
  • The gardens of the Balchik Palace
    The gardens of the Balchik Palace
  • The Baths of Balchik Palace
    The Baths of Balchik Palace
  • Balchik's main street going down the harbor
    Balchik's main street going down the harbor
  • A costal view of Balchik's private hotels
    A costal view of Balchik's private hotels

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Balchik.

Notes

  1. ^ Template:En icon Bulgarian National Statistical Institute – towns in 2009
  2. ^ Template:En icon „WorldCityPopulation“
  3. ^ „pop-stat.mashke.org“
  4. ^ An inventory of archaic and classical poleis By Mogens Herman Hansen, Thomas Heine Nielsen, Kobenhavns universitet. Polis centret Page 932 ISBN 0-19-814099-1
  5. ^ И така, нзв Балканът в качеството си на собствено име заема едно точно определено място в ономастичното пространство на българския език или което е същото - сред всички остана...
  6. ^ Gavrilova, Raina:"Bulgarian urban culture in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries" p.47.
  7. ^ Template:Bg icon Population on 01.02.2011 by provinces, municipalities, settlements and age; National Statistical Institute
  8. ^ Population by province, municipality, settlement and ethnic identification, by 01.02.2011; Bulgarian National Statistical Institute Template:Bg icon
  9. ^ Balcica Maciuca, Balcic, Editura Universalia, București, 2001
  10. ^ http://processspace.net/about.html
  11. ^ http://www.novinite.com/articles/165856/New+Golf+Complex+May+Be+Built+near+Bulgaria%E2%80%99s+Balchik
  12. ^ Hotels in Bulgaria project surge in Russian tourist arrivals at Balchik airport, The Sofia Echo, 8. August 2011.
  13. ^ "Web_Based_Twinning". http://projects-namrb.org/ (in Bulgarian). NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MUNICIPALITIES IN THE REPUBLIC OF BULGARIA. Retrieved 16 December 2015. {{cite web}}: External link in |website= (help)

References

External links


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