Balchik

Sister cities

• Armutalan
• Bran
• Stará Ľubovňa
• Hagfors Municipality
• Mangalia
• Cieszyn

History

Founded as a Thracian settlement, it was later colonised by the ancient Greek Ionians with the name Krounoi (), later renamed as Dionysopolis () after the discovery of a statue of Dionysus in the sea. Later it became a Greek-Byzantine and Bulgarian fortress. Karvuna is the old Bulgarian name of the ancient Dionysopol. The external resemblance to the name of the modern town of Kavarna is an occasion for some local historians to identify Karvuna with Kavarna, but the archaeological and historical data are not in favour of this proposal. Karvuna was the capital of the Karvuna region, also called Dobrudja in the Middle Ages until the arrival of the Ottoman Turks. The remains of the castle of the boyars Balik and Dobrotitsa were found above the city hospital of Balchik in the "Horizon" district (Gemidzhiya), but were almost erased by natural processes. In the Vasil Levski neighbourhood there are remains of the great fortress of Karvuna, built by the Byzantines and used by them and by the Bulgarians during the First Bulgarian Empire. Later, due to difficulties in defending the vast fortress located in the plain and the lack of a view of the sea, the Bulgarians built a fort of which only modest remains are preserved on the highest hill of the city, the Dzheni Bair or Ekhoto ('Echo') hill. The earthen rampart behind the ditch dates to the late 12th century, with various habitation-related findings from the 11th-15th centuries. which is central in the development of Romanian 20th-century painting. Many works of the artists comprising the group depict the town's houses and the Turkish inhabitants, as well as the sea. Some seaside villas of the Romanian elite are preserved in Balchik, including Villa Storck (built in 1920–1926 by the artists Cecilia Cuțescu-Storck and Frederic…