100% DESIGN LONDON - DalCasa

Dvorac Ratkaj u Velikom Taboru / Castel Ratkaj in Veliki Tabor
Foto: Milan Babić, HTZ
Croatian Castles – Cultural and Economic Potential that Is Falling into Decay
Project Villas for Preservation
of Construction Heritage
Merely ten percent of about hundred old, cultural buildings are maintained and transparent – the
other ones are left into ruin, without the defined ownership structure. Fifty percent of the castles
have no purpose at all, and the owners don’t have the money to change their purpose
Written by: Mary Novosel
Cultural heritage – maintained and managed
in an exemplary way – can have an
important role in spatial and economic development
of a certain region. That precise
sentence is the concise guiding line of an international
project called Villas, which aims at strengthening
the economic cohesion of the European space
by enlarging the value of the cultural heritage that
consists of historic castles, curias, villas and summer
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resorts. Project Villas, fully named “Villas, Stately Homes
and Castles – Compatible Use, Valorisation and Creative
Management”, includes 16 institutions from Austria, Italy,
Croatia and Greece. The head coordinator of this project
for Croatia is the Architectonic Faculty within the Zagreb
University, and the head manager is professor Mladen
Obad Šćitaroci. The whole process of detecting the condition
and finding potential solutions has resulted in a miserable
conclusion – it’s true that Croatia can boast with