Batana Ecomuseum and Spacio Matika

The batana is a flat-bottomed wooden boat shaped for Rovinj’s shallow harbour and developed over centuries by the town’s fishing community, who built, repaired and sailed the boats themselves. The House of Batana opened in 2004 in a traditional waterfront house as an interpretation centre for the boat and its culture, and in 2006 the project expanded to include Spacio Matika, a preserved local tavern where fishermen once gathered, ate and sang. The ecomuseum interprets batana building, fishing traditions, the local Rovinj dialect, food and the bitinada — the characteristic multipart singing of the fishermen — as living community practices. In 2016 the project was selected for UNESCO’s Register of Good Safeguarding Practices, a recognition of safeguarding intangible cultural heritage. This concerns living traditions and must not be described as UNESCO World Heritage status for the museum, Rovinj or its Old Town.