Maria Alexandra Victoria – Queen of Romania

She was one of the most beautiful women in her days. Beautiful and elegant – real queen. If you want to know what was the style of “bell-epok” or “art-modern” just take a look of the Queen of Romania. Her full name could be in no way gathered in one print line: heir to the crown granddaughter of Emperor Alexander II Nikolaevich, princes Maria Alexandra Victoria Sakskoburggot (1875 – 1938), heir to the crown daughter of price and cavalier Alfred (1844 – 1900) Great Britain, duke of Edinburg, second heir to the crown son of the king of Great Britain, Ireland and the empress of India Victoria I (1819 – 1901), duke Sakskoburggot. She is poetess, painter, mother of five children, nurse during The World War I, prominent politician – she is Queen. She gave two of her daughters or the kings of Serbia and Greece and took the title “Mother-in-law of the Balkans”. Exactly this woman arrived in Balchik in 1921, was charmed of it`s beauty and started building her summer residence in the south part of the town, which was later called “Tihia kat” (“Still recess”). The palace was designed by two Italian architects Amerigo and Jany. The park was designed and build by the guidance of the Swiss gardener Jules Jani, who was chief gardener in the King`s Village Palace in Sankt Petersburg until 1917. The Queen`s Palace was fully finished in 1937. There Queen Maria gathered her friends – writers, painters and poets. In Balchik she spent the most wonderful years of her life. Also there in 1937 when she tried to interfere between her sons dueling, she was deadly injured. As she wished in her testament her heart was walled in the clock tower of the Balchik Palace. There are a lot of legends connected with the name of Queen Maria. One of them tells that she took major part in the saving from the Bolsheviks (Russian soldiers during the Soviet Revolution in 1917) of princess Anastasia, daughter of the last Russian king Nikolay II.

In nowadays the complex “Tihia kat” (“Still recess”) is preserved and opened for visitors. It is under the protection of UNESCO as monument of the culture.