Photo credits: Mani Gutău
The Ivan Patzaichin – Mila 23 Association announces the completion and reception of the buildings hosting the Ivan Patzaichin Museum in Mila 23, Danube Delta – his birthplace.
The museum will serve as a true community innovation center, with activities based on reviving and reinterpreting the social norms specific to the delta area, in the context of the Ivan Patzaichin Traditional Culture Center, the beneficiary of the funding project Cod SMIS 152165 RO.
The Ivan Patzaichin Traditional Culture Center aims to show both locals and visitors how the Danube Delta can develop sustainably, encouraging young people from the Delta to remain in the area. Traditions and customs can be preserved and integrated into modern life, providing Delta locals with the opportunity to use them as alternative sources of income throughout the year. The museum will not be a mere place to visit but also an open portal to nature, a laboratory, and a connector to the creative world, through which local tradition will be explored, and reclaimed as a contemporary resource for development.
The Museum complex consists of two buildings made entirely of wood and local materials, such as reed and clay, integrating parts of the house where Ivan’s parents lived after the 1970 floods. For the first time in the Delta, hemp was used for the insulation of the buildings – an innovative process that reclaims a plant with deep tradition and many uses in Romania, all mostly forgotten today. The 18-meter-high Observatory-Museum, made entirely of laminated wood, is the tallest wooden structure in Tulcea County and will house the Treasury (the most important medals won by Ivan during his athletic career) on the ground floor. The upper floors feature a vertical multimedia artistic installation that presents Ivan’s life journey, from his childhood in the village, to his time as a multiple Olympic champion, and later, coach, mentor, and social entrepreneur. The adjacent building will host cultural activities of various local organizations, as well as meetings of stakeholders from the Danube Delta (non-governmental organizations, tourism operators, local authorities), summer camps, and artist residencies. The complex will feature a model Local Gastronomical Point set for courses and a workshop for repairing and maintaining wooden boats. It is equipped with a solar panel system and charging stations for bicycles and electric engine boats, thus aiming to become the first electricity prosumer in Mila 23. This space will be an essential hub for sustainable tourism and a reference point for reshaping tourism in the Delta, being on the first “slow tourism route” initiated as part of a mobility initiative for ecotourism in the Danube Delta.
The museum will be equipped in the near future, with its opening to the general public being scheduled for the new tourist season in May 2024.
The museum is made on the initiative of the Ivan Patzaichin – Mila 23 Association who will also be managing it..
The investment has a total value of 3.6 million lei, benefiting from a non-reimbursable funding of 2.376 million lei granted through the 2014 – 2022 European Operational Program for Fisheries and Maritime Affairs, Measure III.3 – implementation of local development strategies under community responsibility.
The museum would not have seen the light of day without the generous financial support of the Main Partner BCR and of Alpha Bank. The construction of the complex was also sponsored by the Bosch Romania Foundation, the Vasile Tomoiaga Association, Imuc Global Group, Addinol Lubricants Romania, TMD Pro Solutions, CTE Solution-Specialized Equipment, Energoconstruct. Thanks also go to the Romanian-American Foundation, which contributed financial and management assistance.
More details: www.rowmania.ro
