[VIDEO] New Tourist Attraction Presented in Eastern Croatia

(photo credit: Davor Kibel)

A new tourist attraction for eastern Croatia was presented yesterday in Osijek…

Osijek has a new tourist attraction – the largest water-mill in Croatia. The replica mill-boat, which is situated on the river Drava near the town center, was presented yesterday. The project, a joint Croatian and Hungarian one, has been financed to the tune of 300,000 euros by the EU.

Although the replica wooden mill-boat was presented yesterday, it will be open to tourists and the public for trips, tours and excursions in February 2016, poslovni.hr reported.

“This will definitely be a great tourist attraction, but also a reminder of the beginning of the milling industry in Osijek. In the mid-19th century, which was the golden age of mills on the Drava in Osijek, there were more than 60 such mills,” Osijek Mayor Ivan Vrkić says.

The last mills in Osijek stopped working in 1944, and through this project the aim is to revive the memory of the glorious era of milling during which Osijek became the center of cereal and bakery products. Today the largest Croatian and regional producers and processors of grain are in eastern Croatia.

(photo credit: Davor Kibel)

“It is a culture that we must teach it to our children and to remember the roots, but also continue to develop the industry,” Vrkić concluded.