January 30, 2021 – By implementing two projects to preserve maritime heritage, Rab and Lopar will soon get exciting and modern tourist content – a virtual museum and multimedia interpretation center.

As HrTurizam reports, with the help of European funds, the Rab City and Lopar Municipality Tourist Boards are working to enrich the tourist offer. The value of added up funds provided by Rab and Lopar through only two projects exceeds 3.5 million kunas. Thus, the cultural and historical value will significantly contribute to the tourist value.

Virtual museum of the Rab town

The Rab City Tourist Board has been allocated funds from the Local Development Strategy in Fisheries LAGUR Tramuntana. The start of the project "Virtual Museum of Fisheries, Maritime Affairs and Shipbuilding of the City of Rab" is expected in March this year. The total value of approved funds is 1,120,518.31 kuna.

Within the project, it is planned to set up information boards on Banjol and Barbat's coastal belt to create an educational route. By using modern digital technologies, those interested will be shown information interesting for the history of fishing, maritime affairs, and shipbuilding on the island of Rab.

All information will be available through a web application, which will preserve and promote the fishing and maritime tradition and traditional shipbuilding of the fishing area in a modern way.

Rab town / Copyright Romulić and Stojčić

With the application, visitors will have many comprehensive and interesting current and historical information about each location, as well as the project as a whole, in virtual reality. Besides, the application would enable a virtual walk along the specified tourist promenade.

This project will create a tourist offer outside the tourist season, and the Rab City Tourist Board believes it will contribute to connecting the tourism and fisheries sectors.

Multimedia Interpretation Center in Lopar

An even more financially valuable project will be realized in Lopar. Namely, the Lopar Municipality Tourist Board was awarded 2,4 million kunas for the project "Man and the Sea - Fisheries and Maritime Heritage of Lopar."

This is a significant project, considering that a multimedia/interpretation center for fishing and maritime heritage is planned. The general project's goal is to contribute to the protection, preservation, and valuation of Lopar's cultural and natural heritage as a basis for the sustainable development of the Lopar fisheries and aquaculture area.

The Center will preserve the fishing and maritime heritage of Lopar, protect exhibits, make a model of a traditional vessel in the area, and interpret fishing methods and tools. It will also make a Dictionary of old words, phrases, and swear words from the Lopar area and make a menu with traditional recipes for fish dishes. The same dishes and recipes will be recorded and placed on multimedia totems to be available to visitors.

Photo: Lopar Municipality Tourist Board

The project activities will unite and preserve the rich heritage for future generations in one place, show the Lopar area's lifestyle in an accessible way, and enrich the tourist offer.

Center until the summer of 2023

The multimedia space will consist of five thematic rooms. At the entrance to the interpretation space, you will learn more about the history of Lopar. The road further leads to a room where vessels, tools, and techniques will be presented. The room "Man and the Sea" follows, in which the customs of the Lopar region will be presented through fishing stories.

Today, it is difficult to imagine a tourist promotion without traditional dishes. Traditional fish cuisine will also find its place in the multimedia space. And finally, in the fifth room, ecology will also find its place. A large aquarium will present it with plants and animals from this climate. As part of the multimedia space, there is also space for workshops with a library.

The upgrade of the Rab City Tourist Board's building, where the Center will be located, will begin in the fall of this year, and the second phase is planned for early next year. It is planned that the Center will open in the summer of 2023.

Local development strategy

These two projects result from the persistent and diligent work of local stakeholders on the sustainable development of the fisheries area. Namely, back in 2016, the Local Action Group in Fisheries LAGUR / FLAG Tramuntana was established for Karlobag, Senj, Novalja, Rab, and Lopar. By connecting the civil, public, and economic sectors and their active cooperation, the LAGUR Tramuntana was developed, and financial resources for implementation were provided.

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November 29, 2020 – In untouched island landscapes, the Rab Archaeological Traces mobile application will present valuable archaeological, sacral, and ethnographic heritage dating from prehistory to the beginning of the 20th century.

As Turizam24 reports, the mobile application Rab Archaeological Traces is an upgrade of the same project, which was initiated within the Program Route 27 Neighborhoods (Programski pravac 27 susjedstava), a part of the Rijeka 2020 – European Capital of Culture project. The app will be presented online on Monday, November 30, 2020, at 2 pm on Facebook.

Starting from the idea of an open-air museum, the Rab Archaeological Traces project was developed, which presented about 30 archeological sites on the island of Rab. In the first phase of the project, which was presented to the public in June this year, three educational trails with a total length of 40 km were arranged, which connected more than 30 archaeological, sacral, and ethnographic sites hidden in untouched island landscapes.

In the second phase, an interactive mobile application was created as a kind of trail guide that combines navigation, augmented reality (virtual characters), audio and video content, various interesting facts, question marks, games, and AR photography, and has built-in statistics and a reward system.

The sites are presented at 34 info points connected by educational trails with a total length of 40 km that stretch through Kampor (Capo Fronte trail), Lopar (Epario trail), and Supetarska Draga (Frux trail) and include protected areas of the landscape. Some sites are in the archaeological strata and you will have to look for them more closely, while others impress with their structures that have defied time for centuries.

In addition to navigation and information about heritage sites themselves, the application also provides many interesting facts, legends, and stories about the island and life on the island. Virtual characters who tell historical stories, audio guides, augmented reality, learning through games, and quizzes will make your exploration of the island unforgettable.

The application works offline and is intended for hikers, cyclists, mountaineers, and all lovers of nature and cultural heritage.

It is free for end-users and can be used for individual exploration of the island, for educational purposes, and as an aid to tourist, bike, and mountain guides during guided tours.

The application was developed by the Lopar Cultural Center, Rab Public Open University, Rab Tourist Board, and Lopar Tourist Board with the expert assistance of the Institute of Archeology and the Maritime and Historical Museum of the Croatian Littoral Rijeka, and financial support from the City of Rab and Lopar Municipality.

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