One and a half kilometres from the town of Balchik, on the seashore, between three hills, there is a palace with the poetic name "Silent Nest" - a favourite resting place of Queen Maria of Romania. Built by Italian architects Americo and Augustino, the building has three floors and is a good example of a combination of Eastern and European architectural elements (perhaps the reason for this is that Maria spent her childhood in Egypt and always advocated the rapprochement of Christianity and Islam). In a small chapel nearby, there is a carved image of the queen with her daughter. In 1938, Mary died in Sinai while trying to prevent a duel between her sons. According to her will, her heart was bricked up in the walls of the chapel.
A botanical garden is organically woven into the palace complex. Here visitors can see more than three thousand plants from different parts of the world. The paths in the garden are lined with white stone, on which carpets were laid in Mary's time. The local cactus collection is very curious - there are about two and a half hundred plants (it is the second largest cactus collection in Europe). Currently, the botanical garden is under the jurisdiction of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and various events and exhibitions are regularly organised here.
