Central European Lines

[Radu Dinu Cordeanu]

Hi Radu

I enjoyed your photo-journal.
Very pleasant pictures.
Learned a lot from you.

Please post more...

Thanks

Nimitz
(Manila, Philippines )

I'll try,thanks!

[Radu Dinu Cordeanu]

When we arrived,I found a car parking(1 Lev/h) which gave us a 10% reduction at one of the restaurants which are around.For entrance we paid 10Levs/person(roughly 5 Euros)that giving the possibility to visit the botanical garden and the palace.On both sides of the road towards the palace there are many kiosks with souvenirs.



Among slippers,hats and Venetian masks are dishes and jugs with royal family portraits.In such way the kioscs seems to be the highest expression of the democracy.Going on this direction if,in 1789,the kioscs should have been ,"La Grande Revolution" and "La Terreur"should not have been

[Radu Dinu Cordeanu]

Queen Marie visited Balchik in 1921.She liked this place so hired two architects from Italy to built the palace and a florist from Swiss to arrange a garden-park(here a 1000 sq.m cactus garden still exists).From 1940 when Bulgarians ruled again this territory the garden-park was transformed in botanical-garden.

[arith]

Very nice.

[Radu Dinu Cordeanu]

Very nice.

I'm glad You like it!

[Radu Dinu Cordeanu]

After it passes under former guard room,it gets in the garden.



First sign this is a special place is The Srebarnia Kladenets(Silver Well).This very old well was reconstructed by the Queen in the biblical style with stone blocks as that from Sihar,Samaria.On the wall is a majolica of Holy Virgin kneeling in front of Jesus.

[arith]

Impressive architecture.

[Radu Dinu Cordeanu]

Impressive architecture.

Yes,but from the military point of view there are many hidden areas.

[Radu Dinu Cordeanu]

Of course the reconstruction of a well in biblical style is not the proof of the romanticism of Marie,so I looked fore more.My seeking was not a research,Her romanticism was visible in the time of the walking.Approximately in the center of the park a stone cross marks the place which was selected by Queen for Her grave.Now the signs and the words carved in it are almost illegible because of the time and weather.In the center of the cross there is a circle and a cross on its vertical arm being carved ¨my heart¨and on horizontal arm ¨my country¨



When She was asked why a grave in the center her aswer was that it must remind those living we all are mortal!

[Radu Dinu Cordeanu]

Don't imagine that the park of the palace is full of crosses and biblical style wells.There are many other buildings here.Some of them were transformed to accommodate the tourists.

[Radu Dinu Cordeanu]

Here was royal cinema where American movies supporrted Her native romanticism

[Radu Dinu Cordeanu]

Other buildings played a more prosaic role.For example this,which now is a souvenirs' shop was the tailor's workshop.I didn't understand why in front of it there is Marie's Florence marble throne.No one knew if it was moved or if this was its initial place.

[Radu Dinu Cordeanu]

Close to the Marie's throne there is another one.It seems to be made of the same stone from Bessarabia like the cross of Her grave.Probably the interlocutor had an inferior rank.The carved sign on the back is strange enough:a crescent moon with a star?!Two questions are rising.First is about the reason of communist administration to move the thrones from their initial place.The answer seems to be they didn't.The second is linked to the rumors about Her many lovers.Was one of them Turk?

[Radu Dinu Cordeanu]

Walking through park the visitors can see some big earthenware jars which raise surprisingly from different places.They were brought from Morocco playing an ornamental role.I don't know why from Morocco,in Her kingdom there were many such jars producers.

[Radu Dinu Cordeanu]

Walking to and fro through park I found these four heads.The face of the fourth head which is at the top of the sculpture is turn to the sky.This small but nice artistic creation was placed here by the Bulgarian administration and it was not in Marie time.There was no indication about the name of the author or the title of the work.

[Radu Dinu Cordeanu]

The same "fate" has and this mysterious sculpture,whose curved lines,being in opposition with its covered top,transform it in a strange and alarming spectre.

[Radu Dinu Cordeanu]

Being brought in the front of the truth I had to concede that these faithful girls are looking rather for a seclusion into a monastery than into a swimming pool

this fate deleted this shot from the 8th page

[Radu Dinu Cordeanu]

Returning to the Queen Marie,from 1916 when Romania stepped into the war to 1919 when Romania finished its WW1 She was the soldier-woman being several times The head of the war military council.In the same time She spent most of her time in the hospitals taking care the wounded soldiers and dying men so they called Her "mother".After the horrors of the war were finished She quickly found the road towards a normal life or...maybe not!Here,in the park Marie built The Water Temple,which,in fact is a Roman loggia with a small pool in the middle.This construction tries to recreate The Bethesda Pool near The Jerusalem Temple where from time to time an angel cured the sufferings and where Jesus said "Get up!Pick up your mat and walk!"


ON THE CONTRARY

[Radu Dinu Cordeanu]

In those time,when the Bethesda Pool carried out its mission,the wine was a "binder" of the Mediterranean worlds.So in the Balchik palace park had to be a...Wine Alley suggesting the link with The New Testament's times and worlds.

Merry Christmas!

[Radu Dinu Cordeanu]

The white simplicity of the walls,the small numbers of rooms,the modesty of the furniture could be a disappointment for the tourists who saw,before,the West European or Russian or Turks palaces.They,probably,will not understand that this rather villa,instead of a true palace,got to a queen.