Balchik is a town and a seaside resort situated terrace-like on a small bay at the Black Sea coast, 31 km north of Varna, 37 km south-east of Dobrich and 500 km east from Sofia. It is the third most significant Bulgarian port after Varna and Bourgas and it is used primarily for medium-size passengers and trade vessels. Balchik springs to life at the end of the 6th century B.C. as the ancient Greek colony Crunoi (later Dionysopolis) in the place of a former Thracian settlement dating back from the 1st millennium B.C.

The exceptional view of the town from the sea impressed the great Ovid who exclaimed: "Oh, white stone town, I salute thee for thy inimitable beauty!". The Milesian colonists believed that the goddess of beauty, Aphrodite, was born there out of the sea foam. The spouting karst springs gave the town its first name of Krunoi (meaning spring or source in Old Greek). Its next name was Dionysopolis and during the Middle Ages the town was named after the local feudal lord, Balik. In Roman times Balchik had the statute of a municipius. In 13th - 14th century it changed to Dzhina Bair, a natural fortification; later on the town was ruled by the Boyar Balik, and so it was called Balchik. After the Crimean War (1853 - 1856) Balchik flourished and grew into a big corn-trading centre.