February 8th, 2022 - The dinosaur-themed edutainment park in Istria was nominated in the category Hospitality Architecture

The Paleo Park in Mon Perin camp in Bale, Istria was nominated for the 2022 Building of the Year award by ArchDaily, world’s biggest architecture website. It’s nominated in the category Hospitality Architecture, with the list of five finalists to be announced tomorrow, reports Glas Istre / Robert Frank.

The Paleo Park is a blend of a themed amusement water park and an educational and research platform, designed and built to complement and highlight the archaeological site located near Bale. Designed by the NFO architectural studio, the facility promotes the local heritage in a way that respects and helps preserve the ancient site. It’s seamlessly incorporated into the wooded area near the coastline.

Thirty years ago, Bale was inscribed in the World List of Paleontological Sites after dinosaur bones were discovered in Colone bay, today a part of Mon Perin camp. According to expert estimates, a dozen species of dinosaurs lived in the Bale area, including the mighty brachiosaurus. Their fossil remains are said to be located in the seabed and are up to 200 million years old.

This precious natural heritage was used as the central theme in the construction of the water park as an integral part of the camp. The central pool is designed in the shape of a dinosaur; life-size replica models of dinosaurs are also placed around the pools to reinforce the theme of the park.

With an area of 16,000 square metres, Paleo Park is just one of the exceptional architectural projects in Bale, a municipality that has been rapidly developing over the past 15 years. They are dedicated to continuous enhancement of public spaces and introducing innovations to improve the tourist offer and extend the season.

Image by Bosnić+Dorotić / archdaily.com

This is not the first time that a building in Bale is nominated for a prestigious award. In 2008, a sports hall designed by the architectural studio 3LHD won first place in the sports structures category at the World Festival of Architecture in Barcelona. Impressive in itself, but even more so given that Bale won against the Wembley Stadium in London, a €1,1 billion investment - almost 1,000 times more than the Bale hall. Watercube Olympic Pool and Beijing Tennis Centre were also shortlisted in the same category that year.

Last week, the Mon Perin company that runs the camp of the same name announced they will be investing 100,000 euro in archaeological research at the Kazamate site in San Polo Bay, to be carried out by the specialised company In Situ. Namely, it is an ancient Roman villa rustica, a structure dating to the period between the 1st and the 4th century. The villa is to be granted the status of a protected cultural site.

One of the most attractive new additions to the Istrian tourist offering is nearing completion: Paleo Park, Bale's answer to the world-famous Jurrasic Park is set to open in four months!

Paleo Park will be a part of the new, much improved camping Mon Perin, which currently undergoes a major enlargement, creation of the whole new tourist complex that will include the park dominated by the swimming pool shaped like a dinosaur. The dino-shaped pool will have the surface area of over a thousand square meters of water surface, and almost three times as much area for sunbathing.

Why the dinosaur? In 1992, an incredible discovery in the seabed of the cove near Bale uncovered that the dinosaurs once lived in the region. While it has been known that the dinosaurs have lived in Istria, this is still the only location in the world where dino fossils were found on the seabed. (Scientific geeky content: the most important remains found were of the Histriasaurus (get it? Histria-saurus, Istrian lizard!) boscarollii, one of the oldest species of the genus Rebbachisauridae, supposedly living more than 130 million years ago.)

In addition to the water park complex, the Mon Perin Camping will promote other content related to the prehistorical beasts that remain popular among the children (and adults!) today, such as the educational paths with posters about the history and characteristics of the largest animals ever to have walked the Earth, and models made in their natural size!

After more than six months of heavy machinery work, the pool complex has been almost completed, and now need to be completely finalised, Ivan Maričić, board member of the Mon Perin told Novi list. Now they need to finish the landscaping around the pool, as well as all 16 thousand square meters of the camping site. Of course, the paths need to be created and new objects need to be furnished as planned. Since they've had no major hold-ups or delays during the worst phases of the project when various factors could've impacted the project's progress to a much greater degree, they are confident that all the work will be finished by late May or early June, so just in time for the new tourist season!