Balchik




Place in Dobrich, Bulgaria

















































Balchik


Балчик


Coat of arms of Balchik
Coat of arms


Balchik is located in Bulgaria

Balchik

Balchik



Location of Balchik

Coordinates: 43°25′N 28°10′E / 43.417°N 28.167°E / 43.417; 28.167Coordinates: 43°25′N 28°10′E / 43.417°N 28.167°E / 43.417; 28.167
Country Bulgaria

Province (Oblast)
 Dobrich
Government

 • Mayor Nikolay Angelov
Elevation

 199 m (653 ft)
Population
(2009-12-31)[1][2][3]

 • City 12,196
 • Urban

 22,035
Time zone
UTC+2 (EET)
 • Summer (DST)
UTC+3 (EEST)
Postal Code
9600
Area code(s) 0579

Balchik (Bulgarian: Балчик, Romanian: Balcic) 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.




Contents






  • 1 Etymology


  • 2 History


  • 3 Culture


    • 3.1 Art


    • 3.2 Music


    • 3.3 Sports




  • 4 Trivia


  • 5 Twin towns and sister cities


  • 6 Gallery


  • 7 See also


  • 8 Notes


  • 9 References


  • 10 External links





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 Turkish 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] Balchik Palace also hosts In the Palace International Short Film Festival.



Music


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 Crew, Scorpions, Alice Cooper, Deep Purple, and the Michael Schenker Group.[11]



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.[12]



Trivia




  • Francis Ford Coppola spent 11 days at the Balchik palace shooting scenes of Youth Without Youth.


  • Balchik Ridge, in Antarctica, is named after the town.

  • The currently unused Balchik Airfield is envisaged to be prepared for low-cost airlines, especially from Russia.[13]

  • Famous Turkish poet Nazım Hikmet wrote his well-known poem "Mavi Liman" (The Blue Port) in Balchik.



Twin towns and sister cities


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

Balchik is twinned with:[14]




  • Turkey Armutalan, Turkey


  • Turkey Süloğlu, Turkey


  • Romania Bran, Romania


  • Romania Mangalia, Romania


  • Slovakia Stará Ľubovňa, Slovakia


  • Sweden Hagfors, Sweden


  • Poland Cieszyn, Poland


  • Russia Tambov, Russia


  • Russia Galich, Russia



Gallery






  • Centre







  • Centre







  • An Orthodox Church in Balchik







  • Aerial overview of Balchik







  • The Coast of Balchik







  • Waterfall







  • The gardens of the Balchik Palace





  • Balchik Palace 3.jpg







  • The Baths of Balchik Palace







  • Balchik's main street going down the harbor







  • A costal view of Balchik's private hotels






See also







  • Decree of Dionysopolis

  • Balchik Palace

  • Albena

  • Bulgarian Black Sea Coast

  • Dobrich Province



Notes





  1. ^ (in English) Bulgarian National Statistical Institute – towns in 2009 Archived November 13, 2010, at the Wayback Machine.


  2. ^ (in English) „WorldCityPopulation“


  3. ^ "„pop-stat.mashke.org"". mashke.org. Retrieved 9 April 2018..mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit}.mw-parser-output q{quotes:"""""""'""'"}.mw-parser-output code.cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:inherit;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-lock-free a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/65/Lock-green.svg/9px-Lock-green.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .cs1-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .cs1-lock-registration a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-gray-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .cs1-lock-subscription a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-red-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration{color:#555}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription span,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration span{border-bottom:1px dotted;cursor:help}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none;font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration,.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-right{padding-right:0.2em}


  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... Archived 2007-09-29 at the Wayback Machine.


  6. ^ Gavrilova, Raina:"Bulgarian urban culture in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries" p.47.


  7. ^ (in Bulgarian) Population on 01.02.2011 by provinces, municipalities, settlements and age; National Statistical Institute Archived September 8, 2013, at the Wayback Machine.


  8. ^ Population by province, municipality, settlement and ethnic identification, by 01.02.2011; Bulgarian National Statistical Institute Archived 2013-04-05 at WebCite (in Bulgarian)


  9. ^ Balcica Maciuca, Balcic, Editura Universalia, București, 2001


  10. ^ "Process - Space Art Festival". processspace.net. Retrieved 9 April 2018.


  11. ^ "Kavarna Rock Fest 2016: First 3 Bands Confirmed - Novinite.com - Sofia News Agency". novinite.com. Retrieved 9 April 2018.


  12. ^ "New Golf Complex May Be Built near Bulgaria's Balchik - Novinite.com - Sofia News Agency". novinite.com. Retrieved 9 April 2018.


  13. ^ Hotels in Bulgaria project surge in Russian tourist arrivals at Balchik airport, The Sofia Echo, 8. August 2011.


  14. ^ "Web_Based_Twinning". projects-namrb.org/ (in Bulgarian). NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MUNICIPALITIES IN THE REPUBLIC OF BULGARIA. Retrieved 16 December 2015.




References


.mw-parser-output .refbegin{font-size:90%;margin-bottom:0.5em}.mw-parser-output .refbegin-hanging-indents>ul{list-style-type:none;margin-left:0}.mw-parser-output .refbegin-hanging-indents>ul>li,.mw-parser-output .refbegin-hanging-indents>dl>dd{margin-left:0;padding-left:3.2em;text-indent:-3.2em;list-style:none}.mw-parser-output .refbegin-100{font-size:100%}



  • Crisan, Ion Horatiu (1978). Burebista and His Time. Bucharest: Bibliotheca Historica Romaniae.


  • Mihailov, Georgi (1970). Inscriptiones graecae in Bulgaria repertae (in Latin and Ancient Greek). 1 (2nd ed.). Sofia: In aedibus typographicis Academiae Litterarum Bulgaricae.


  • Oltean, Ioana Adina (2007). Dacia: landscape, colonisation and romanisation. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-41252-8.




External links



  • Balchik.com – Hotels, Restaurants, News, Events and Properties

  • – Online catalog of Balchik

  • Balchik Photos

  • Ancient coinage from Dionysopolis


  • Searchable Greek Inscriptions at The Packard Humanities Institute (PHI) [permanent dead link] – Segment from Decree of Dionysopolis reviewed in Inscriptiones graecae in Bulgaria repertae by Georgi Mihailov

  • Quiet Nest Palace

  • International Art Forum – WithoutBorders

  • In The Palace International Short Film Festival, Balchik


  • BulgariaLeisure.com, Tourism Information Portal (in Bulgarian and English)















-

Popular posts from this blog

Lambaréné

Image
Place in Moyen-Ogooué, Gabon Lambaréné Street in Lambaréné Lambaréné Location in Gabon Coordinates: 0°41′18″S 10°13′55″E  /  0.68833°S 10.23194°E  / -0.68833; 10.23194 Coordinates: 0°41′18″S 10°13′55″E  /  0.68833°S 10.23194°E  / -0.68833; 10.23194 Country   Gabon Province Moyen-Ogooué Population (2013 census)  • Total 38,775 Lambaréné is a town and the capital of Moyen-Ogooué in Gabon. With a population of 38,775 as of 2013, it is located 75 kilometres south of the equator. Lambaréné is based in the Central African Rainforest at the river Ogooué. This river divides the city into 3 districts: Rive Gauche, Ile Lambaréné and Rive Droite. The Albert Schweitzer Hospital and the districts Adouma and Abongo are located on Rive Droite. The districts Atongowanga, Sahoty, Dakar, Grand Village, Château, Lalala and Bordamur build the Ile Lambaréné. The majority of the people in Lambaréné live in the district Isaac located on Rive Gauche. This distr
Read more

Chris Pine

Image
Not to be confused with Christopher Pyne or Chris Pyne. Chris Pine Pine in 2018 Born Christopher Whitelaw Pine ( 1980-08-26 ) August 26, 1980 (age 38) Los Angeles, California, U.S. Alma mater UC Berkeley Occupation Actor Years active 2003–present Parent(s) Robert Pine Gwynne Gilford Relatives Anne Gwynne (grandmother) Christopher Whitelaw Pine (born August 26, 1980) [1] [2] is an American actor. Pine made his feature debut as Lord Devereaux in The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement (2004). He is known for playing James T. Kirk in the Star Trek reboot film series (2009–2016), Will in Unstoppable (2010), Cinderella's Prince in Into the Woods (2014), Jack Ryan in Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014), Toby Howard in Hell or High Water (2016), Bernie Webber in The Finest Hours (2016), Steve Trevor in Wonder Woman (2017), and Dr. Alexander Murry in A Wrinkle in Time (2018). Contents 1 Early life 2 Career 2.1 2003–200
Read more

Kashihara Line

Image
Kashihara Line   B   A Kashihara Line train passing Yakushi-ji temple Overview Native name 橿原線 Type Commuter rail System Kintetsu Railway Locale Nara, Nara, Japan Yamtokoriyama, Nara, Japan Tenri, Nara, Japan Kawanishi, Nara, Japan Miyake, Nara, Japan Tawaramoto, Nara, Japan Kashihara , Nara, Japan Termini Yamato-Saidaiji Kashiharajingu-mae Stations 17 Operation Opened April 1, 1921 ; 98 years ago  ( 1921-04-01 ) Owner Kintetsu Railway Character Commuter rail Technical Line length 23.8 km (14.8 mi) Track gauge 1,435 mm ( 4 ft  8   1 ⁄ 2  in ) Minimum radius 240 m Electrification 1,500 V DC Overhead lines Operating speed 100 km/h (60 mph) [1] The Kashihara Line ( 橿原線 , Kashihara-sen ) is a 23.8 km (14.8 mi) north-south bound railway line in Nara Prefecture, Japan, owned and operated by the Kintetsu Railway, a private railway operator. It connects Yamato-Saidaiji Station and Kashiharajingu
Read more