As reported by turistickeprice.hr, the tourist board project, designed during the pandemic, called the Heritage Chest, won the national annual award Simply the Best for 2020. This award for creativity, innovation, development, and improvement of the tourist offer of the destination is traditionally given by UHPA (the Association of Croatian Travel Agencies) and the tourist magazine Way to Croatia.
Bakar is an ancient port and one of the oldest cities on the Adriatic. The Mediterranean Sea is the deepest inland right here in the Bakar Bay, which reaches a depth of up to 44 m!
In his arms, Copper proudly ascended the hill like a stone amphitheater. It has been present on the stage of history for 5,000 years, and its core was registered as a cultural monument in 1968. Every step through its streets and surroundings reveals a new, exciting story and unexpected contrasts.
Credit: Bakar Tourist Board Official Facebook Page (Photo by Miljenko Šegulja)
The wider area of the City of Bakar covers as much as 125.60 m2 and unites numerous natural diversity. Bakar and eight surrounding places (Hreljin, Krasica, Kukuljanovo, Plosna, Ponikve, Praputnjak, Škrljevo, and Zlobin), dry stone vineyards of Bakarska prezidi with a praputnjar part called Takala, a karst lake that arises and disappears in Ponikve, Hreljinska Gradina at 321 m above sea level by the sea, the top of the mountain Rišnjak and many other reasons for coming to the Bakar region.
At the time of the pandemic and in very demanding working conditions, in which the tourism sector, in particular, was put to the test, the Tourist Board of the City of Bakar showed its creativity and decorated itself with a valuable award with its innovative project. Two Simply the best awards were won:
- Tourist agency “VIA MEA” won the award in the category ‘‘Travel agency – Cooperation with the local community to improve the tourist offer of the city of Bakar and to develop a new tourist product – heritage gastronomic event Tuna fest’’
- Heritage Chest won the award in the category ‘‘New project in tourism for excellence, creativity, and improvement of the tourist offer of the destination’’.
The Heritage Chest project arose from the need to continue working despite the consequences of the epidemic and in a creative way, with the support of the local community, to overcome the problems due to reduced budgets in conditions of difficult tourist functioning. The goal of the Heritage Chest is to animate the local population in order to collect and preserve valuable heritage material.
Credit: Bakar Tourist Board Official Facebook Page (Reproduction by Miljenko Šegulja)
Numerous residents and lovers of the Bakar area responded to the invitation of the tourist board by sending it photos, old postcards, author’s songs, stories, and interesting records about various historical figures. The casket contains Praputnjarski records and numerous interesting stories, such as the one about the blind copper aquifer Ivan Čop, who lived in Bakar at the end of the 19th century.
Credit: Bakar Tourist Board Official Facebook Page
The story of the women of the Roberti family from Bakar, who for more than 150 years, from generation to generation, passed on and carefully kept the recipe for the Bakar cake, also found its place in the chest. The Tourist Board of the City of Bakar in cooperation with the bakery “Vrbnik” managed to revive this recipe and include in its offer Bakar cake: a dessert of sumptuous taste, which further enriched the gastronomic offer of the City of Bakar.
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