On Friday, 13 April 2018, the Back in the Day project partnership met in the Castle of Rakičan to discuss the state of cultural heritage in the border area and the possibilities of its preservation in the form of an outdoor museum. Further stakeholders of the culture and tourism sector, experts, the general public ans media representatives also participated in the event.
The project partners, RIS Dvorec Rakičan and Göcseji Rural Museum from Zalaegerszeg, stressed the complementarity character of the established partnership. The aim of RIS Dvorec Rakičan as a dynamic institution is to attract as many visitors as possible by their offers, and as the manager of the cultural heritage to responsibly preserve the cultural heritage. The Göcseji Rural Museum has valuable knowledge in collecting, preserving and promoting folk heritage, but attracting a wider audience from the Slovenian side is a challenge to them.
The partners aim at meeting the above challenges by applying innovative work-exchange methods and introducing cross-sectoral and cross-border partnerships. The project focuses on not only strengthening institutional cooperation but also to connect and link such areas which – as the result of the common history – have several common cultural heritage elements. Without being integrated into the local offers at the regional level, such offers can be realised only with municipal cooperation and municipal support – as expressed by the Mayor of the Municipality Murska Sobota, Mr dr. Aleksander Jevšek, and Márta Tolvaj, the Deputy Mayor of Zalaegerszeg.
The opening event with the press conference was also combined with an educational and promotional excursion in the Rakičan Castle. The almost 50 participants, out of which more than half were Hungarian guests, visited the manor and were shared with the development plans (revitalization of the park, construction of the Exhibition and Tour Operator Center). Hungarian guests, municipal and museum representatives and representatives of tourism organizations, by filling in evaluation questionnaires and providing concrete proposals, underpinned some disturbing factors and potentials that could be crucial for heritage conservation and the future development of offers.
Collaboration with the rural museum in Zalaegerszeg reveals such elements of cultural heritage that bring people together on both sides of the border. As part of the project, partners have identified pottery as one of the most recognized trades. The potter master Franc Zelko presented the pottery production process that are traditional in the Pomurje region following the centuries-old family tradition in producing ceramic products. The folk artists of the Elementary School Beltinci, cymbalist Anda Sobočan and violinist Samo Budna also presented a part of the folk heritage. Representatives of the project partnership have planted a tree in the park surrounding the Rakičan mansion.
