Three couples of royal lineage visited Friday an exhibition honoring Queen Marie of Romania at the seaside palace in Balchik, north-eastern Bulgaria,

They included Marie's two granddaughters, Princesses Margareta and Elena of Romania and their husbands, Prince Radu Duda and the Baron of Hohenzollern.

The Romanian royals were accompanied by their Bulgarian relative, last Bulgarian Tsar and former Bulgarian PM (2001-5) Simeon Saxe-Coburg and his wife Margarita.

The "Queen Marie of Romania - History and Fate" exhibition presents origninal photos of the queen, period postcards from Balchik, as well as first editions of books written by her.

Marie, formerly Princess of Edinburgh, lived 1875-1938, and was Queen of Romania 1914-1927.

She built the Balchik Palace in the early 1920s - the time of Romania's 1913-40 occupation of Southern Dobrudja - after falling in love with the area, located at a picturesque cape on the Black Sea.

Today the palace functions as a museum and botanical garden operated by the Sofia University.

In accordance with her wishes, Queen Marie's heart was first buried in the palace, to be returned to Bran Castle in Romania after the transfer of theregion back to Bulgaria.

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