Camera & edit: Anca Fronea
Music: "Oasis" - Zero Project
www.zero-project.gr
Balchik Castle, located in the city of Balchik (Bulgaria), was a residence of Queen Maria of Romania, at the time when this territory belonged to Romania.
Built on the shores of the Black Sea, the castle includes a botanical garden, a smoking hall, a cellar, a monastery cell, a water spring, several residential villas and various other buildings.
The castle was built on a land offered to the queen by the banker Ioannis Hrissovelonis, land enlarged by the purchase by the Romanian state of other neighboring lands from the locals.
The queen called the villa "Tenha Yuva" ("The Lonely Nest" in Turkish). It was designed by the architect E. Guneș and built between 1925 and 1929.
Although the construction of another castle had begun in the Mamaia resort, the queen fell in love with the landscape offered by Balchik and built a smaller and more intimate castle here as well. Legend says she only lived in this small one.