The focus of the Living Castles project is to preserve and promote cultural heritage and evaluate seven castles through the development of joint cross-border tourism programmes and the integration of innovative activities in preserving and presenting heritage.
The project encompasses Varazdin's 'Old Town,' the Old Town of Cakovec, the Veliki Tabor castle, Orsic Castle in Gornja Stubica in Croatia and the Ptuj, Celje and Rakican 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 Varazdin Museum director, Ivan Mesek, underscored that the project will enable the modernisation of the museum's holdings.
"The Varazdin City Museum has 200,000 artifacts, most of which are hidden from the public's view. The whole of Varazdin 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 Simunic, 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 Varazdin's Old Town a year.