On October 20, 1961, on the initiative of the Town Community Centre “Paisii Hilendarski”, in its own building, a historical and archaeological museum collection was established. The founder of the first exposition of the Historical Museum – Balchik was Mrs. Clara Petkova.
The exposition is located in a building constructed in 1907 by an Austrian architect for municipal and district administration. In 1928, the facade was reconstructed according to the project of the Romanian architect Henrietta Delavranca-Giburi. From 1959 to 1965 the building was used as a community centre and town library. The transformation of the museum collection into a state museum took place on 2 April 1969.
Visitors to the museum have the opportunity to experience cultural values from prehistory, antiquity and the Middle Ages of the town of Balchik. In the exhibition halls there are artefacts from the Hellenistic and Roman period of Dionysopolis (now Balchik). In the third hall are the inscriptions, fragments of inscriptions, marble sculpture found from the Temple of Cybele, reflecting the religious and social life in Dionysopolis. In terms of number and variety, this is the largest group of movable monuments associated with the cult of the mother of the gods.
In the exposition halls are exhibited a number of stone axes and hammers, flint scrapers and other tools, which are undeniable evidence of the existence of a settlement on the territory of the present town of Balchik in the New Stone Age 6 000 BC. The carriers of the culture of the next epoch were the Thracians. They left relatively scarce materials, so far only ceramic fragments.
Balchik was founded by Greek colonists more than 26 centuries ago. Its first name Kruni is connected with numerous karst springs located in the area. The next name of the present-day town Balchik is Dionysopolis. The coins minted in this period point to agriculture and viticulture as important sectors of the town’s economy.
From the Roman period, on the territory of today’s airport, a Roman chariot has been discovered, which can be seen in the second exhibition hall of the museum. It is a two-wheeled chariot with an iron seat and bronze decorations: eaglets, arms, a bust of a slave and Dionysus. The chariot probably belonged to a noble warlord of Dionysopolis. At this time the city reached its greatest economic prosperity.
From the same period is the model of the tomb of a Roman doctor – priest from the 2nd century, which was discovered on the territory of Balchik in 1907. The rich and interesting find of bronze household objects and surgical instruments is of great importance for the city. They show that even then surgical operations were performed on this territory. This discovery gave rise to the idea of establishing a museum in Balchik.
Today, the museum’s collections contain 20 000 archive items.
