Queen Marie of Romania Gardens, Balchik Palace

In 1924, when Queen Marie of Romania visited Balchik for the second time in her life, she fell in love with the very old trees and mills founded on the banks of a small river and decided to build her paradise here. Between 1924 and 1937, Marie built at Balchik her summer palace and garden complex, which she named Tenha Yuvah, meaning the Quiet Nest. The unique beauty of the gardens is due to the work of Jules Jeannin, head gardener of Russian Emperor Nicholas II. He collected exotic species - mimosas, magnolias, roses, lilies, and cacti - and arranged them in floral compositions, a gardening masterpiece. Marie's gardens are an aesthetic accumulation of symbols of different civilizations. They are her old dream come true: cultures and religions harmoniously existing together, near the sea. The minaret of the small mosque rises close to a Roman-Arab bathhouse, Bulgarian-style chardaks, or verandas, and a Moorish courtyard. The huge earthenware pots were shipped from Morocco and the Hellenistic marble throne from Florence. A Christian chapel, built to keep Queen Marie's heart rest forever in the middle of all the beauties she created, is located at the lower end of the complex. It was her very last wish before she died. Balchik was Marie's last love, after a lifetime of disappointments and searching for love.

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