The University Botanic Garden in Balchik has been giving joy to its millions of visitors for fifty years now. It not only assists Bulgarian higher education and science by providing its territory for research to university students and lecturers, but also fosters an attitude to the beauty and diversity of the vegetable kingdom, brings home the importance of its protection and development.

Founded on July 27, 1955, as a branch of the Botanic Garden in Sofia with the cooperation and support of the rector of St. Kliment Ohridski University of Sofia Acad. Daki Yordanov, it occupies the territory of the former summer residence of the Romanian Queen Maria. When in 1940 Southern Dobrudja was given back to Bulgaria, the residence and the park became property of the Bulgarian state.

Park engineer Nikola Minchev undertook the not easy task of constructing this green oasis amidst the white rocks of Balchik, and Nikola Momchilov was technical supervisor. With a lot of work and love they succeeded in preserving the existing species in the garden and lay the foundations of the future expansion and enrichment of this unique park.

In the course of 50 years, thanks to the persistent care of the university experts this romantic place, shrouded in beautiful legends, became a genuine pearl of the northern Black Sea coast. Over an area of 65 decares coexist vegetable species from all parts of the world. In the cool alleys, crossed by limpid brooks and impressive waterfalls, one can see the second of its kind, after Monaco, collection in Europe of monotypic cacti and other succulents in the open. About 3000 plant species are grown in the garden, belonging to 800 genera, having incredibly diverse forms and colors. Including such rare trees as the paper tree, the rubber plant tree, the bonbon tree, the ancient ginkgo, the age-old poplars and magnolias. The metasequoia is a pride of the garden managers. The vegetation diversity is skillfully combined with handsome rockeries, water spaces, waterfalls, water lily ponds, romantic bridges, rosaria and arenaria. This beauty feeds our ideas of Eden and our eyes cannot be satiated with the harmony and fascination.

During these 50 years the Botanic Garden not only passed a hard road of tireless work, it also fought battles with short-sighted state officials of dubious interests. Since 1948 the building of the former summer residence of the Romanian Queen had been used by the Ministry of Culture as a holiday home for cultural workers. In 2000, by an order of the regional governor of Dobrich Prof. Kamburov, the garden, run so diligently by the specialists and generations of botanists from Alma Mater, was recorded as part of this building and the property of Sofia University grossly violated. In practice, the care for the exceptional botanic collection passed in the hands of non-specialists.

The icon of St. Kliment Ohridski was taken to the University Botanic Garden

The tension between the ministry and the university escalated when it became known that the ministry of culture intended to build 59 two-story houses, 3 tennis courts and an amphitheater in the territory of the botanic garden. This unprecedented encroachment on the emblem of the Bulgarian botany was thwarted after a tough battle between the two institutions and with the fervent support of the Bulgarian civil society. Within months, over 27 thousand signatures were collected for the saving and preservation of this national wealth. The result was more than satisfactory. By order of Dolores Arsenova, Minister of Environment and Water, the University Botanic Garden was declared a protected territory, where any construction is banned, pollution with building or household waste, unlicensed felling or destruction of the grass or tree vegetation. This laid a solid and civilized basis for settlement of the problems between the Botanic Garden and the Cultural Institute “The Palace”. In such favorable and hopeful atmosphere the unique park celebrated its jubilee.