Balchik Botanical Garden Dispute Solved After Years Of Confrontation

The dispute between the Culture Ministry and Sofia University St Kliment Ohridski, which both claimed ownership of the botanical garden and the palace complex in Balchik Black Sea resort, ended on May 27 2008, Bulgarian news agency Focus said.

The two sides shook hands to put an end to the conflict that started in 2004 and made visitors pay two entrance fees.

Both institutions have claimed that they have the right to maintain the largest botanical garden in Bulgaria and collect entrance fees for  it. That way two entrances were set - one by the ministry and one by the university just a couple of metres from one another.

On May 27, Culture Minister Stefan Danailov and Ivan Ilchev, the dean of the university, signed an agreement to have just one entrance fee of 10 leva. Proceeds would be split equally between the two institutions.   

The agreement provides for setting up a public council that would convene every three months to lay down ideas for the development of the garden. The council will be organised by both the ministry and the university. One of the things the council will discuss is what to be done with a vast area of land that is currently not developed.

The conflict started in 1999 and had to do with the legal ownership over the garden and the cultural monuments, which included the so-called palace complex, the former summer residence of Romania’s Queen Marie during the time when Balchik was Romanian territory between the two world wars.

The garden has always been under the custody of the university, while the palace has the statute of a cultural monument and was governed by the ministry. The problem was that both are part of the same complex. That's why the two institutions claimed that each if them is entitled to the revenues from entrance fees.

Bulgarian media speculated that former culture minister Bozhidar Abrashev had a personal interest in taking over the complex and that hotels were going to be built on the land.

Reportedly, plans were to build a recreation complex with 59 two-storey houses, three swimming pools, three tennis courts, a 1000-seat amphitheatre, a winery and a vineyard, and restaurants. Indeed, such a project was initiated by Abrashev, but fell through because it was not approved by Balchik's municipal council.

In 2004, the controversy moved into court with three lawsuits filed following applications by Sofia University to reclaim its property rights concerning the botanical garden. After years of public protests by the university, in August 2007 the cabinet decided to share the park's management between Sofia University and the ministry.sofiaecho.com