Report about the successful conclusion of the Project ‘Re-opening of the Jankovic Castle to the public‘, which was awarded Tourism Cares Worldwide Grant in August 2011.

The objective of the Project was well defined: to re-open the Jankovic Castle to the public, after using the awarded funds ($ 10.000, from Tourism Cares and somewhat larger amounts from other sources for co-financing the Project) to capacitate and refurbish two important interior spaces in the historic core of the Jankovic Castle i. e. the ‘Ancient Kitchen’ and the ‘Great Hall’ (‘Sala’).

The specific goals were:

A) To refurbish the ‘Ancient Kitchen’ (on the first floor of the tower building) and to return to the Castle the first of its valuable collections, the Ethnographic collection, to arrange the exhibition and prepare it to be presented to the visitors.

B)  To renovate and refurbish the adjacent ‘Great Hall-Sala’ and convert it into a multifunctional space, which would be well suited for various exhibitions and at the same time appropriate for the realization of numerous revitalization events.

C) To establish the first exhibition in the “Great Hall” (this first one was understandably dedicated to the JankovicCastle: it was a photo-exhibition entitled: “Meet the renewed and revitalized Jankovic Castle”), and, finally,

D) To re-openJankovicCastleto the public: to local people, visitors and tourists

All these goals have been fully achieved.

After having refurbished both mentioned spaces (please, see the attached photo-documentation) and arranged both planned exhibitions, our Association organized the formal opening of the Castle, which was held on July 25^th 2012.

The Castle was formally re-opened by Ms. Vesna Juric Bulatovic, the Vice-minister of culture of the Republic of Croatia, in the presence of many dignitaries from the domain of culture, high-education and political life. Among the participants there were also several other high-ranking members of the  Ministry of Culture of Croatia, including the Vice-minister for the cultural heritage, the Principal Conservator of the Republic of Croatia and the Director of the Conservation Department of the Ministry of Culture in Zadar; the two vice-rectors – from the Universities of Zagreb and Zadar, one congressman, the cultural attaché of the Delegation of the European Union in Croatia, directors of several Museums,  representatives of the local community (vice-presidents of the Zadar and Benkovac counties ). A number of them took the occasion to greet the event, praise the Project and stress the importance of  the re-opening of the Castle –  important both owing to the significance of this unique heritage site and as a center that will help the development of its surroundings and the region.
The event was excellently covered by media: it appeared in the news in a number of TV-stations the same day, as well as in some specialized programs later on where some longer reports were presented. The event received similar attention from the radio stations. It was also an important news item in printed media, and it was presented on many web portals.

The re-opening of the JankovicCastleto the public was treated as an important event. One daily newspaper (Zadarski List, on July 26^th), brought a two-page report about the event, stressing its meaning for the preservation of the cultural heritage and its potential beneficial impulse to helping develop the region. The article was also announced on the first page of the Zadar daily journal (attached scanned document: Zadarski List…pdf). The very headline on the front page (“Through the renewal of the Castle towards the renewal of the mutual trust between Croats and Serbs”) shows that the potential of the Castle in mitigating the still-open war wounds has already been recognized.

The list of some web-sites regarding the opening of the JankovicCastleis given in the attached document (Selection of media reports.doc). In this attachment some of the news were reproduced, and an example of news reported can be opened or downloaded.

Since the opening (i. e. in the first several weeks) over 400 guests came to visit the location (in fact more, but those were documented, since they wrote some comments or signed their names in the Visitors‘  Book).

Several events occurred in the Castle after the opening: “Common Heritage Awareness Days” organized by our Association during the last days of July and in the course of August; the event Artists in exile was held in the first week of September (organized by the Centre for Peace Studies, from Zagreb, and our Association as a local organizer), and in mid-September the event “7^th Desnica’s Encounters” (organized by the Humanities faculty of Zagreb University, and our Association as a local organizer). The next event (Meeting of local NGO-s) in theJankovicCastle is planned for the October.

The help of the Tourism Cares was acknowledged by a plaque on the wall and in printed materials distributed for the occasion. Complete Report will also be uploaded on the Association’s web-page.

Finally, we would like to stress two additional important points and consequences of the help of Tourism Cares Grant in the realization of this project:

a) The grant enabled our Association to put into effect the large investments into the basic repairs of the war-damaged Castle, made mostly by the Ministry of Culture ofCroatiain the course of the last decade. The re-opening of the Castle and the media reaction it produced, informed the potential visitors about the status of the site as a whole: a considerable part of the historic section of the Castle, although not yet fully refurbished, has been basically repaired and is safely accessible – the ‘dungeon’, the Tower terraces with breathtaking views, the medieval church and the Castle’s park. All these, along with two attractive exhibitions installed owing to this project, effectively have made the visit to the Castle much more attractive.

b) The philanthropic support  from Tourism Cares did not only result in re-opening the first of Jankovic Castle’s valuable collections to the public, but greatly helped the Association in further promoting the development of ‘cultural tourism’ in the Zadar hinterland – an underdeveloped region with very rich but poorly known cultural heritage. It is reasonable to expect that it will make a difference in the lives of the local people, still recovering from the terrible war devastations, by opening to them new social and economic p