Out of 228 project proposals submitted 39 were approved, among them a project in which the Croatian Conservation Institute is taking part. The project led by the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of Slovenia is aimed at revitalizing the historical Claustra Alpium Iuliarum Roman limes in the territories of Croatia and Slovenia and is due to last 15 months. The signing of the contract is scheduled for March 2014 and the complete value of the project amounts to 604.200 €.
The joint monitoring committee for the Operative Programme of Cross-Border Cooperation Slovenia-Croatia for the programme period 2007-2013 approved on 18th December 2013 the total of 39 projects, which are to be co-financed from the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA) fund.
228 project proposals were submitted, among them three projects submitted by the Croatian Conservation Institute in cooperation with other Croatian and Slovenian institutions, under the programme priority “Sustainable management of natural resources”.
The joint committee approved the project which the Institute is taking part in, titled “Stone Barriers of the Roman Empire – Claustra”. The project will be led by the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of Slovenia (Zavod za varstvo kulturne dediščine Slovenije) in cooperation with the Croatian Conservation Institute, the National Museum of Slovenia, the Ivan Michler Institute from Ljubljana, the Žmergo Association from Opatija and the Primorje-Gorski Kotar County.
The complete value of the project for the duration of 15 months will amount to 604.200,48 € (around 4.580.000 HRK), with the IPA co-financing approved in the amount of 510.535,59 €, which is approximately 85%.
Croatian Conservation Institute’s share is 121.867,92 € (around 923.760 HRK). The signing of the contract is due in March 2014.
The aims of the project are:
- to draw up a management plan for the remains of the Claustra Alpium Iuliarum Roman limes in the territories of Croatia and Slovenia,
- to raise awareness of the public and the targeted groups (youth, tourist economy, entrepreneurship and the local community), based on recognizing Claustra and its potential, about the development possibilities of the preservation and sustainable use of this heritage resource for local cohesion and economy, and
- to develop actual cooperation among cultural institutions of both countries, by exchanging good practices, with the application of advanced technologies of long-distance surveying and non-destructive reconnaissance methods and by coordinating conservation viewpoints.
Croatian Conservation Institute’s project activities will include the documenting of the existing parts of Claustra (gathering historical cadastral plans and studying the toponymy of the Claustra territory in Croatia) and field reconnaissance in Croatia and in Slovenia (a mixed team of specialists from both countries), based on spatial data and through the use of LiDAR and aerial photography, archaeological excavations at some known sites, the interpretation of results and the conservation and the analysis of movable archaeological finds. Croatian Conservation Institute’s activities also comprise a comparison between the legislation and conservation viewpoints in the protection of cultural heritage of Slovenia and Croatia and a coordination of management plans, conservation plans, the methodology of recording and valuing heritage, the ways of preserving and presenting it, the cooperation in developing a documentary and a web site, giving public lectures and preparing publications and exhibitions.
The project is a follow-up to the archaeological excavation which the Croatian Conservation Institute has been undertaking since 2007 in Rijeka, where remains were unearthed of a principium of a military camp from the Late Antiquity, from where the defensive wall towards Italy was monitored, in addition to the archaeological excavations of the Claustra route in the territory of Primorje-Gorski Kotar County.
An indirect aim of the project is to prepare the documentation and the cooperation for the transnational application to include Claustra in the UNESCO World Heritage Site listing.