Balchik (; historical names: , , ) is a
Black Sea coastal town in the
Southern Dobruja area of northeastern
Bulgaria. It is located in
Dobrich Oblast and is 42
km northeast of
Varna. The town sprawls scenically along hilly terraces descending from the
Dobruja plateau to the sea.The
ancient Greek colony of Krounoi (also known as Dionysopolis, after
Dionysus), later a
Greek-
Byzantine fortress, stood on the site of an older
Thracian settlement. In the
First Bulgarian Empire in 7th century AD, the place's name changed from Krounoi to Karvuna; in the
Second Bulgarian Empire, it became an important administrative centre of its Karvunska Hora district, and was marked on Italian
portolans as a port with the Italianized name of Carbona. In the 14th century, it briefly became capital of the spinoff Dobrujansko despotstvo (
Principality of Karvuna). Under the
Ottoman Empire, the town came to be known with its present name, which perhaps derived from a
Gagauz word meaning "small town"
[1] (as opposed to the "large town" of Varna).
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