Corn maze inspired by local folklore embroidery "Hrvatica"
In 2022 we developed a corn maze as a seasonal attraction, which shape was inspired by the motives of the local embroidery named "Hrvatica". Within the maze we have developed assignments about local heritage which was a fun element for kids and youth. Around 2000 visitors came to explore the corn maze, local community accepted the project very well and it was widely covered by the media. We believe it is a great example of sustainable tourism and regaining a sense of beloning in the rural area.
Local
Croatia
Ivanić-Grad and rural surrounding area - Dubrovčak Lijevi near the Sava river
Mainly rural
It refers to other types of transformations (soft investment)
No
No
Yes
2022-10-14
As a representative of an organization, in partnership with other organisations
Name of the organisation(s): Tourist board of Ivanić-Grad Type of organisation: Non-profit organisation First name of representative: Ana Last name of representative: Gašparović Gender: Female Nationality: Croatia Function: director Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Moslavačka 11 Town: Ivanić-Grad Postal code: 10310 Country: Croatia Direct Tel:+385 99 288 1591 E-mail:info@tzig.hr Website:http://www.tzig.hr
Name of the organisation(s): Museum of Ivanić-Grad Type of organisation: Other public institution First name of representative: Rosana Last name of representative: Škrgulja Gender: Female Nationality: Croatia Function: director Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Park hrvatskih branitelja 6 Town: Ivanić-Grad Postal code: 10310 Country: Croatia Direct Tel:+385 99 325 8437 E-mail:ravnatelj@muzejivanicgrada.hr
Name of the organisation(s): KUD Posavec Dubrovčak Lijevi Topolje Type of organisation: Non-profit organisation First name of representative: Marko Last name of representative: Klak Gender: Male Nationality: Croatia Function: secretary Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Ulica braće Radić 5 Town: Lijevi Dubrovčak Postal code: 10316 Country: Croatia Direct Tel:+385 91 934 0406 E-mail:marko.klak55@gmail.com
Name of the organisation(s): Friends of Heritage Type of organisation: Non-profit organisation First name of representative: Kristina Last name of representative: Komšo Gender: Female Nationality: Croatia Function: vice president Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Školska 12 Town: Ivanić-Grad Postal code: 10310 Country: Croatia Direct Tel:+385 95 922 6984 E-mail:prijatelji.bastine@gmail.com
Corn Maze "Hrvatica" (Hrvatica means Croatian lady) was developed in Lijevi Dubrovčak in the rural area of Ivanić-Grad in 2022. in order to valorize and present local heritage in an innovative manner and to connect with the local community. The project was initiated by the Tourist board of Ivanić-Grad and developed in cooperation with Museum of Ivanić-Grad, Friends of Heritage and KUD Posavec Dubrovačak Lijevi (folklore society). This rural area doesn't have any museum or gallery where the local heritage could be presented, so development of a seasonal attraction of natural material (corn) was ideal for heritage interpretation. Conceptual design of the corn maze was inspired by the adjusted embroidery motive of the local folklore costume called "Hrvatica", specific to this part of Croatia. Work in the corn field lasted from June till August, and it was open to the public from August till October 2022. Museum of Ivanić-Grad developed questions, assignments, workshops and work sheets for visitors. Educational part included not only heritage, but also food, local agriculture issues and climate change. Entrance to the maze was free of charge and average time spent in the corn maze was between 45-60 min. We had excellent national media coverage, and around 2000 visitors came to the corn maze. Local community embraced the project and was delighted to have so many visitors and groups interested in their local heritage. We believe that such project is a great example of sustainable tourism and heritage interpretation which involves local community and regains a sense of belonging. During World Cup in Qatar, former president of Croatia, Mrs. Kolinda Grabar Kitarović wore "Hrvatica" folklore costume during the Croatia - Canada match at the end of November (https://www.gloria.hr/gl/scena/celebrity/kolinda-na-utakmicu-stigla-u-narodnoj-nosnji-crveni-vez-na-njoj-ima-posebnu-simboliku-15280382). Project will continue in 2023 and preliminary plans have been developed.
connecting with the local community
innovative heritage interpretation
sustainable tourism
multisector cooperation
cultural landscape promotion
Corn maze 'Hrvatica' merges and emphasizes 2 out of 3 main sustainability components: environment and society. Cultural landscape is the place where the local culture has been developed and sustained it's survival continuously coexisting with the environment for centuries, as it is evident for the project area. Dubrovčak Lijevi is a rural settlement inhabited from 15th century and since then developed rich traditions and customs, which can also be seen in folk costumes, one of which has been recognized nationally - Hrvatica ("Croatian girl"). Signs of cultural development can also be found in the landscape, as it is evident in the rich corn field patterns in the landscape. By using the embroidery as a conceptual inspiration and sealing it into the landscape important for the local area, we presented and emphasized the traces of the genius loci (spirit or character of the space) which is important in shaping of present community and environment. With additional contents for the visitors we educated and renewed their knowledge about this small local area.
Corn maze is an attraction of natural material and human intervention in nature is minimal. Attraction lasts from summer till autumn and attraction changes as season changes in terms of color and growth. This is an excellent learning platform for children and youth to experience changes in the nature. Since Sava river is close by, we were able to show how climate change affects our environment and extreme hot summer can affect agriculture. In 2023 we will develop the corn maze on the different location since this year's corn field will be used for another crop, so this is how we respect the nature and adjust our activities to the environment. We have also encouraged arrival to the attraction by bike, and on foot. If visitors arrived by car, we have marked specific spots where cars could be parked.
The project team consisted of several members; Marko Klak from the folklore society presented the whole team the local folklore heritage, and Kristina Komšo (landscape architect), vice president of the Friends of Heritage, made the design of the maze, Rosana Škrgulja from the Museum of Ivanić Grad was in charge of the educational part and Ana Gašparović from the Tourist Board was dealing with the coordination and promotion of the project. Locals helped with field work, cutting the corn in order to make paths. The whole project was very engaging with positive feedback from team members, locals and visitors. We created a safe environment for the kids with wide paths of the maze, many local elderly people said they used the corn maze during their regular evening walks in the village and were proud that something new is happening in their area. Folklore heritage of this part of Croatia is now surely known nationwide.
Corn maze was free of charge and accessible every day to visitors. It was self-guided, but groups if wanted could get a tour and educational workshops. We have had a wide range of visitors; families, couples, individuals, kindergarten and school groups, and people with disabilities, since the terrain was reachable by car, and the paths inside were stiff and wide. We also encouraged arrival by bike with guided maps to the maze and have built a small wooden bridge over the canal in the field.
Two civil society organizations were largely involved in the project development - Friends of Heritage and KUD Posavec folklore society with expertise and field work. Citizens living in this rural area also got an opportunity to build the maze with the organisers and later to reconnect with their local traditions and heritage and explore their surrounding in an innovative way. Additionally, corn maze was highly recognized by broad range of national media which helped to promote the cultural and natural heritage of the local region of a small rural settlement of Dubrovčak Lijevi to a wide public. After the project completion they expressed a desire for continuation of the project in 2023 and their intention to organize a local farm fair during the corn maze season in order to showcase their local crafts, local cuisine and folklore dancing workshops. These activities would prolong the visitor experience and engage even more people of the local community.
Our project was given financial and promotional support by the Agricultural Institute in Osijek and local stakeholders (The City of Ivanić-Grad, Tourist Board of Ivanić-Grad). Professional and educational support was given by civil organizations Friends of Heritage, KUD Posavec folklore society and Museum of Ivanić-Grad. Broad media coverage during the project was from the local, regional and national level (Croatian Radiotelevision, local Family Radio Ivanić, wide range of news portals and social media pages). In October 2022 we have applied for the support on the regional level for the project continuation in 2023.
During development and implementation of the project we have cooperated with people with different expertise: landscape architect, surveyor (geodesy), museologist, ethnologist, historian, travel product developer, PR and marketing. Corn in the corn field was a produce of the Croatian agriculture institute (www.poljinos.hr) so it was an additional value to promote the local crop from the local production and not an imported crop from the large agriculture corporation.
Initially, it was the cooperation between ethnologist, landscape architect and surveyor. The conceptual idea was made by landscape architect, which was inspired by the data from the local ethnologist. The concept was developed into the precise implementation plan with the help of the local surveyor and brought to reality with the help of the locals from the KUD Posavec folklore society. After we developed the maze paths, museologists, ethnologists, historians and travel product developer cooperated on the visual identity, educational assignments, communication, promotion and visitor experience.
The main result of this project is visible in the amount of visitors who came to this rural area from outside. Dubrovčak Lijevi settlement has 324 official inhabitants, and the maze, which was situated 2.5 kilometers from the village, attracted around 2000 visitors during the 2 months period. Most of the impressions were more than positive, and we have provided a new and fun attraction for slow and sustainable tourism. The area is well approached by bicycles, and it also holds other natural attractions such as rural floodplain scenery and sandy Sava river beach, which is the biggest and most important river in Croatia. This attraction also provided recreation and movement in the open, on the fresh air in the nature, which is specially beneficial for visiting children who could freely run around the maze. Another value that came out of the maze is the involvement of the local community of the Dubrovčak Lijevi village. Some locals were involved in the project execution as well, and their area together with the traditional folk dress "Hrvatica" became well known and talked about in the broader area and in different media nationalwise.
In addition, the project helped small community to make up a task force made out of wide range of professionals aged from 20s to 50s, who accomplished to create an unique interdisciplinary project with exchange of different insights, knowledge and ideas and achieved great intergenerational cooperation.
This successful pilot-project helped to inspire different old and new stakeholders to continue with the project in this year too, but with additional contents related to the local cultural, historical and natural heritage, as this project showed that the inherited and smaller site specific values can be implemented into new and contemporary interpretation, attracting the wider community to appreciate them too.
Corn mazes are generally common and known to be fun places like "Hrvatica" was, but they are also known for being designed in a "random" labyrinth or popular shape pattern, not related to the local genius loci (spirit of the place), which makes our approach different and innovative. While making intervention in the open space, we thought about adding extra value to the rural landscape itself by using local identity as a major symbol and attraction to the maze. In our case, this was introduced in the form of geometrical and symmetrical pattern inspired by the material heritage of the embroidery of the related local folk costume "Hrvatica" ("Croatian girl"), which is also important on the national level. The pattern itself is adjusted to the size of the site and considering the minimal standards for the safety of the pathways. Another major innovation is that the goal of the maze was not to find the exit; the design actually enabled the opposite - to find the exit immediately, since the maze does not have one main path. Instead, the main goal of the maze was to follow the question boards, which each provided the answer to the previous one. In that way the visitors emerged in the full experience of the maze by trying to find all scattered boards, while at the same time questioning themselves about the knowledge they have on different topics of Dubrovčak Lijevi settlement and Posavina, floodplain rural region of Croatia and Ivanić-Grad. The topics on the boards were about the local history, environment, toponyms and customs.
Tourist Board of Ivanić-Grad recognized the need for promoting the rural area in the outskirts of Ivanić-Grad, with the aim of dispersing cultural and recreational tourism away from the city center and bringing the attention to the more distanced areas. Most of the activities were previously organized around city center (festivals, intepretation panels), or forests (educational trails), and with this project we wanted to create a better connection between rural-urban community and create a platform for future sustainable tourism products in the rural area.
The first phase needed the expertise of shaping the open spaces with the help of a landscape architect. The main professional methodology used was analytics of the project area which gave insight about what is the main genius loci which we can use in this maze, as a tool to enhance other spatial features which are not necessarily visible or known: what helped to shape the identity of this area, what is something that is related to the culture and the inhabitants today, what can we recognize and use as a powerful symbol of the space we are working in, etc. This process was held with the help of a local ethnologist, who provided cultural facts about the area. Gathered conclusions were transformed in the conceptual sketches and final plans, after which the professional surveyist came to help with the field work. By using the total station tool with GPS features, he was able to precisely determine the terrain points and the work team, with the help of local fire department members, cut out the pathways in the corn field.
The final stage in visitor experience development involved creating educational activities (design, print), setting of intepretation and question panels in the maze, and access points from the main road. We have then started marketing and promotion acitivities across several media channels - TV (national, regional), radio and online. We have sent invitation letters to travel agencies and schools.
Every part of this project could be implemented into any other rural area, the same methodology could be used in every other open space. The field does not necessarily have to be made out of corn, it could include different types of plants or materials (e.g. wheat or sunflower fields in the Slavonic region or stone in the Dalmatian region) for the land art inspired by different local stories and heritage aspects. Every space has its inherent value, core sense and character of place which could very easily be interpreted in different natural temporary land art installation, together with different kinds of educational and fun activities such as quiz boards we implemented.
This project helps to recognize the importance of smaller local areas and dispersion of tourist attraction in the broader areas away from already known places and cities. It helps to inspire and remind the local community of their strengths, values and natural and cultural attractions they have around and which they can use as a tool to develop the area in innovative ways. It can help to strengthen the community and make them gather around similar topics and being involved in the decision-making process and creative ideas, which can provide them recognition and promotion. Rural and recreational tourism in smaller scale can help to improve the smaller community economy, if focused on strong stories and motives which can provide an unique experience possible only in the specific area. This type of tourism also promotes physical and cognitive wellbeing, spending time in the open air and in the natural surrounding, moving and using your skills to participate in an educational and playful activities.
