Construction of the aquarium in Karlovac ready for EU funding

‘Freshwater aquarium Karlovac – Kaquarium’ is one of seven regional development projects supported by the Ministry of Regional Development and EU Funds among approximately 300 applications received.

The Ministry believes that the project is ready to apply for co-financing from the EU structural funds. After the relevant minister Branko Grčić and the mayor of Karlovac Damir Jelić signed an agreement on April 4 this year, whereby the MRRFEU will co-finance the preparation of project documentation with 930 thousand kuna, the Development Agency ‘Karla’ announced a competition for the preparation of technical documentation for the Tourist-Recreational Center ‘Freshwater aquarium – Kaquarium’, which will end on May 15.

Speaking about the reasons for the concept of ‘KAquarium’, Viktor Šegrt, director of RA ‘Karla’, stated that due to the lack of newly created tourist attractions, tourism in Karlovac is mainly a transit necessity with negligible tourist retention, which is insufficient for creating any significant added value. Therefore, ‘Kaquarium’ in Karlovac, a city on four rivers, is envisioned as the central Croatian tourist-educational center for the promotion of Croatian lakes and rivers, and the synergistic effect of increasing the region’s tourism potential will be achieved by revitalizing and networking local content such as visits to caves, moving along historical routes, and getting acquainted with their accompanying content, from historical heritage to enjoying traditional gastronomic offerings.

The aquarium complex itself will consist of 10 large tanks with a volume of 25 m3 each, 30 tanks for endemic species, and quarantine tanks, around which a park, a water maze with a children’s playground, and a so-called ‘touch pool’, a shallow tank where visitors can touch certain fish, will be located. The uniqueness of ‘KAquarium’ should also be around 150 species of live fish, of which as many as 40 are endemic species, thus promoting Croatia as a country with the highest biodiversity of freshwater fish in Europe. In order to meet the educational functions of ‘KAquarium’, a projection and conference room, a souvenir shop, a reception, and a restaurant, as well as the almost forgotten healing Kneipp paths of health, are also planned. Construction, if it starts at the end of this year, should last about 10 months, and due to the set period for the procurement of organisms and their adaptation to life in the aquarium, the opening of ‘KAquarium’ for visitors would occur two years after the start of construction.

A visit of about 30 thousand visitors annually, said Marina Grčić, co-leader of the development phase of ‘KAquarium’, would enable, along with the installation of rational energy sources such as heat pumps and solar panels, sustainable financing of the operations of this unique regional project.

‘KAquarium’ is to be built on the site of the unrealized mobile tourism center ‘Lora elektro’ on the right bank of the Korana, which as a public-private partnership project was abruptly interrupted by the City and with great ‘enthusiasm’ from Mayor Jelić. Interestingly, the facilities that the City paid around one million euros for while unfinished, and about which Mayor Jelić today firmly dismissed any discussion, which were declared by the current city authorities of HDZ as an unprecedented eyesore, are now suddenly in the eyes of the creators of ‘KAquarium’ an extraordinary circumstance, almost a godsend infrastructure for the future aquarium complex. The recently resolved property-legal issue, said Jelić, was one of the key elements why Karlovac with the ‘KAquarium’ project was always a step ahead of other projects, but it is also interesting that the amount of one million euros in compensation to Lora elektro is not mentioned as part of the already spent investment in ‘KAquarium’.

On the other hand, Mayor Jelić stated that ‘KAquarium’ is only a quarter of a broader concept, presented and awarded in Switzerland, under the name ‘To You’ or 2U, where the latter means in the Croatian variant ‘Between two estuaries’. This refers to the area between the confluence of the Mrežnica into the Korana and the confluence of the Korana into the Kupa, and ‘KAquarium’ is located within this exceptional natural-recreational potential, part of the Korana and with the only officially certified river, the so-called Fogin swimming area on the Korana.
– Everything actually started from a significant ISPA project for wastewater treatment plants, and just a minute’s walk from ‘KAquarium’ will be Tesla’s house, and there are also projects for the Museum, Fisherwoman, revitalization of Zvijezda, which all interconnected together would certainly attract tourists to Karlovac. If we manage to connect ‘KAquarium’ with one or two of these other projects, thus extending the stay of tourists by one or two nights, then that is already tourism – said Jelić.