Improved management of the valuable heritage asset Sulina Lighthouse is a key objective for Tulcea County Council. Improved management of the lighthouse is planned be included in their regional action plan targeting the Regional Operation Programme 2014-2020, Priority Axis 5. Tulcea County Council foresees that the at the end of June, the grant request for Sulina Lighthouse will be approved.
Prior to reaching this final stage, a number of objectives have been achieved and set up to facilitate the development of the project, the most notable and quintessential being:
- The inclusion of the heritage building into Danube Delta’s Integrated strategy for sustainable development, and in Territorial Analysis of cultural heritage and also in Regional development stakeholder strategy;
- The transfer of the Sulina Lighthouse ownership from the Ministry of Culture (the premise was given to ICEM for administration) to itself, as a stage for project eligibility, according to Government Decision 541/27th of July,2017.
- Development of Feasibility Study (in Romanian legislation under some specific circumstances it is called DALI – endorsement documentation for investment works) for Sulina Lighthouse objective has been finalised, as an endorsement study for intervention on the premise, called Valorisation of historical potential through restauration and conservation of The Old Lighthouse Sulina, Tulcea County.
Complementary to project’s complexity and to underline the regional importance of this project, concluded in the Action Plan, Sulina Lighthouse may prove to be a success story for integrated local development. Within the ," Valorisation of historical potential through restauration and conservation of The Old Lighthouse Sulina ” – project implementation, was established a Marketing Plan which will aim visibility purposes.
In this context it is also relevant to mention that for the success of the project Tulcea County Council has been inspired from:
- Fanad Head Lighthouse - Donegal: for the community role and its involvement in the building regeneration; how volunteering keeps heritage objectives vivid and present;
- Plan of Cultural Heritage of Castilla y Leon: a lesson of how the cooperation between authorities leads to achieve results; in our case the ownership transfer between the Ministry of Culture and Tulcea County;
- Creation of the touristic route Castilla Waterway - Castilla y Leon: it may give us a solution to approach communities, how to listen to population needs and how to coordinate with the existing resources;
- Coastlight -Digital Dissemination of Cultural Landscapes - Vest Agder : an example of how through digital solution (mobile apps, multimedia advertising) we can spot modern ways to promote the location and the heritage objective to become more visible in social media, in order to attract tourists, investors and to generate growth;
- Molise Orientale Tourist District : The inspiration is the Smart Tourism governance model based on landscape and heritage management and the development of a sustainable tourism that could be applied on the territories that show the same characteristics.
In this context, all the expected outputs are related to activities in the Action Plan which coexist with the project implementation - "Valorisation of historical potential through restauration and conservation of The Old Lighthouse Sulina, Tulcea County”.
