ZAGREB, November 7, 2018 – The Varaždin Town Museum is taking part in a 1.5 million euro European project – Living Castles – aimed at connecting castles in Slovenia and northern Croatia, it was said on Tuesday in Varaždin.
The focus of the Living Castles project is to preserve and promote cultural heritage and evaluate seven sites through the development of joint cross-border tourism programmes and the integration of innovative activities in preserving and presenting heritage.
The project encompasses Varaždin’s ‘Old Town,’ the Old Town of Čakovec, Veliki Tabor, Oršić Castle in Gornja Stubica in Croatia and the Ptuj, Celje and Rakičan castles in Slovenia.
The total value of the project, that will be implemented until the end of March 2021, is almost 1.5 million euro and 85% of that amount will be co-financed by the EU within the Interreg V-A Slovenia-Croatia 2014-2020 programme.
The Varaždin Museum director, Ivan Mesek, underscored that the project will enable the modernisation of the holdings of the museum in Varaždin. “The Varaždin Town Museum has 200,000 artefacts, most of which are hidden from the public’s view. The whole of Varaždin would need to be a museum to be able to exhibit everything we have. Modern technology is essential to present everything that is interesting in our fund,” Mesek said.
Modernisation means hologram projections, 3D projections, touch screens and the like, said Ljerka Šimunić, an associate on the project.
The project result will be the joint presentation of these seven castles and the expected outcome is to increase the number of visitors by more than 5%. The concerning castles and museums register annually approximately between 15,000 and 80,000 visitors. More than 50,000 people visit Varaždin’s Old Town a year.
To read more about Varaždin, click here. For more on some of the numerous castles in Croatia, click here.
