Project Details – “Remember the war, appreciate your liberty"
“Remember the war, appreciate your liberty”
Project code: ROBG 449, is cofinanced by the European Union through European Regional Development Found under the Interreg V-A Romania-Bulgaria Programme 2014 – 2020; Priority Axe 2: A green region, Specific objective 2.1: To improve the sustainable use of natural heritage and resources and cultural heritage.
The importance of the historical events that took place in the geographical area of Calafat during the War of Independence of 1877-1878, for Romania, the need to valorisation of these great facts – they give us the chance to turn them into an element of value for the Oltenia area.
We aim to create and promote a representative tourist product for the cross-border area Calafat – Vidin by bringing to life the athmosphere of 1877-1878 Independence War battles and inauguration of an event, “Calafat and Vidin in 1877-1878 period”, with cross-border resonance. The aim is to create epochal and historical atmosphere through original items or uniforms and gear manufactured including edged weapons and fire arms replicas, congruent with the original historical items, for the period commemorated.
Activity 1
Organization for 6 Workshops with military theme:
Will be organized 3 similar events in Bulgaria , Belogradchik and 3 in Romania (Calafat, Corabia and Drobeta Turnu Severin). Each event will be attended by 60 young students ( 30 Ro and 30 Bg).
The workshops will have the fallowing themes:
- theoretical presentation (lectures) of the causes and aspects of military operations preparation in the area.
– practical presentation with direct involvement of the children, with the aim to attracting local volunteers who will be trained later in the “spirit of the epoch". The representatives of the Soldiery Tradition Association will made presentation of military outfits ,guns and military equipment for that time.
This activity has the role of raising awareness in the high schools of Calafat, Corabia, Drobeta Turnu-Severin and Vidin, with the aim to promoting the region by reconstructing the unique event “Calafat and Vidin in 1877-1878". Another objective of this activity is the selection of the group of students who will be involved in the reconstruction of the battle, together with the members of the Soldiery Tradition Association in Romania and the members of the Association “Traditsia" from Bulgaria, participants who will be trained later in the military training.
The selection of participants will be based on of equal opportunities and non-discrimination principals.
The participants with the highest score from the test given at the end of the workshops, but also from those who have expressed their intention to participate in the military courses, will be selected and the rest of the participants will be included in the reserve list.
Based on this selection, military uniforms and related equipment with specific sizes / sizes will continue to be order
Activity 2
Will be organized 2 Workshops with 40 participants(20 Romanian and 20 Bulgarian) (2 days and 1 night/event), one Calafat and one in Vidin, with participation of representatives of local public authorities, representatives of regional administration, representatives of military services, representatives of museums, and others institutions. The activity intends to highlight the historical potential of the region, untapped at his real value, based on the existence of many monuments lifted in honor of fallen heroes in 1877-1878, on both sides of the Danube, monuments which aren’t included and promoted in no any cross-border tourism product.
Also, the activity has the role to attract the representatives of LPA, representatives of museums and NGOs in order to promote and develop the intangible cultural heritage, mainly through cultural events with a cross-border dimension.
Activity 3
6 “Military trainings" will be organized within the project (3 in Romania in Calafat, Drobeta Turnu Severin and Corabia and 3 in Bulgaria in Belogradchik municipality ), each training will attended by 30 pupils ( 15 bulgarian and 15 Romanian) in order to relive the moments from the 1877-1878 period and to increase the military skills of young pupils. The participants in the military trainings will be selected at the awareness workshops among the volunteers interested to participate in the big event within the project.
Also will be invited representatives of high schools, representatives of Calafat and Vidin municipalities, representatives of military entities, local media.
The trainings will be let by 2 experts: expert on military training and expert on history training and wil have the following main themes:
instruction of the young pupils in order to participate to military parade;
instruction of the young pupils in weapons handling;
instruction of the young pupils in order to create a military camp with specific elements from war period: military tents, campfire, preparing the meal in camp, etc.;
presentation of historical facts and stories related with 1877-1878 Independence War.
Training for reconstruction of battles with the services of technical support for reconstruction of battles, including the use of cannons, guns with fake /blank/ bullets, smoke, etc. This type of excersize will be directed in order to teach the participants in the training some special movements and activities needed for the reconstruction of the battles at Calafat and Vidin. Apart from production director for the technical support will be responsible also 2 other experts: Pyrotechnics expert and Gunsmiths expert.
The activity aim to prepare the young pupils in order to participate actively in reconstitution of the 1877-1878 Independence War, to promote the historical identity of the Calafat-Vidin zone and to promote military profession among young people.
Activity 4
Will be organized two events of 3 days (in Calafat and in Vidin) – “Calafat and Vidin in 1877-1878 period“ – in order to promote the historical specificity of the area and to create a tourist product with international resonance, taking in consideration the possibility to develop this event in Danube region. Participants in the events will be 180 volunteers from local schools, who passed the military trainings and representatives of the organisations for reconstruction of historical events from Vidin and Calafat. At these events as visitors will be invited officials from the two countries, counties prefects, mayors, historical experts, representatives of NGOs, pupils, etc.
The events will last three days in Calafat and three days in Vidin.
During the first day will be organised a general rehearsal with all participants, led by the production director provided by the technical support for for reconstruction of battles.
Second day:
military parade and lay of wreaths;
historical presentation of the event in the Art Museum of Calafat / Museum of Vidin;
contest with historical theme – participants will be children from schools;
Third day:
photographic exhibition with images of the Independence War from 1877-1878 in the Art Museum of Calafat / Museum of Vidin;
reconstruction of battle from Calafat and Vidin/action;
During the event will be used the purchased uniforms, weapons and outfit items for the participants in the fight. Also will be used technical support for the reconstruction of battles, which includes 2 cannons with shots, 50 guns, shooting with blanc bullets, shot and ground impact effects, smoke machines, various supplies, etc. The activities of the technical support will be coordinated by Pyrotechnics expert; Gunsmiths expert; Director of production.
The activities from Calafat will be held on a plateau, an historical monument which represents the 1877 Independence War and in the adjacent area of it. This location is representative for the event because here it was the location where the Independence War started, from here it was launched the first salvo.
For the battle from Vidin the location will be the Baba Vida Fortress – independence monument similar with the independence monument of Calafat or the exact place of the battle at Smardan, situated only several kilometers away from the town.
During the event will be shot a promotional movie, part of communication workpackage.
For project activities implementation the will purchased Romanian military uniforms (Vânătorii pedeştrii 10 pieces, Ifanterie linie 20 pieces, Soldat Artilerie 20 pieces, Dorobanţi 25 pieces, Soldat marină 15 pieces) , Russian uniforms (45 pieces) and Turkish uniforms (45 pieces), Military boats (65 pieces), Specific shoes (Opinci) (25 pieces), Sabres( 180 pieces) and Rifles ( 180 pieces)
A sound communication strategy will be used to pursue the achievement of project outputs and results and turn the great event of the reconstruction of the battles at Vidin and Calafat during the Independance war 1877-1878 into a visited by local people and tourists tourism product.
The main elements of the communication are:
development of trilingual web-site in English, Romanian and Bulgarian and organising a facebook page and facebook group for communication within the participants in the activities;
organising 6 press-conferences – 3 in Calafat and 3 in Vidin – 1 for the opening of the project, 1 for the announcement of the event “Calafat and Vidin in 1877-1878 period“ and 1 for the closing of the project and reporting the final results to the public.
producting a 50 minutes DVD movie for the reconstructed event “Calafat and Vidin in 1877-1878 period“ and generally for the common history and monuments from that period.
Development of brochures and leaflets for project promotion;
Development of roll-ups for visualisation of the project and the financing program.
Dissemination of free emails with press-releases before and after every big project activity – 10 press-releases.
200memory plaques will be distributed to participants and selected stakeholders at the reconstructed event “Calafat and Vidin in 1877-1878 period“
