Muinsuskaitseamet
Country: EE
Partner budget: 459.432 EUR
Amount of ERDF funding: 390.518 EUR ERDF
P2 Sustainable use of common resources
2.1. Natural and cultural resources developed into sustainable tourist attractions
Archipelago and Islands
01.01.2017 - 31.12.2019
1.490.113 EUR
1.172.908 EUR ERDF
ENDED. The underwater landscape of the Baltic Sea is a unique ecological and cultural-historical environment resulting from the combination of a long seafaring history and good preservation conditions. The remains of shipwrecks in Estonian, Finnish and Swedish waters, many of them hundreds of years old, often sit upright with masts and rigging still intact. In this aspect, the Baltic Sea is a giant underwater museum waiting to be visited
The project "Baltic History Beneath Surface: Underwater Heritage Trails In Situ and Online" aims to demonstrate the huge tourism potential of the underwater cultural heritage of the Baltic Sea by developing easy and convenient ways for visiting our unique and well preserved underwater sites in situ.
The project will produce several new tourist attractions in the Baltic Sea that are supplied with buoys, underwater information boards and dive trails. With the creation of these tourist attractions we aim at enhancing the attractiveness of the Baltic Sea destinations and increase the number of visits to our region.
Country: EE
Partner budget: 459.432 EUR
Amount of ERDF funding: 390.518 EUR ERDF
Country: FI
Partner budget: 250.686 EUR
Amount of ERDF funding: 188.014 EUR ERDF
Country: SE
Partner budget: 462.320 EUR
Amount of ERDF funding: 346.740 EUR ERDF
Country: EE
Partner budget: 80.400 EUR
Amount of ERDF funding: 68.340 EUR ERDF
Country: FI
Partner budget: 88.875 EUR
Amount of ERDF funding: 66.656 EUR ERDF
Country: SE
Partner budget: 135.000 EUR
Amount of ERDF funding: 101.250 EUR ERDF
Country: EE
Partner budget: 13.400 EUR
Amount of ERDF funding: 11.390 EUR ERDF
Country: FI
The well-preserved wrecks in the Baltic Sea waters are unique in the world. The underwater landscape is a special environment resulting from a long seafaring history and good preservation conditions. The remains of shipwrecks in Estonian, Finnish and Swedish waters often sit upright with masts and rigging still intact. In this aspect, the Baltic Sea is a giant underwater museum waiting to be visited.
The project "Baltic History Beneath Surface: Underwater Heritage Trails In Situ and Online" developed safe ways for tourists visiting some well-preserved underwater sites in the Baltic Sea. People interested in maritime history, shipwrecks, and diving can now make a digital visit or come in real life close to the wrecks on or beneath the water surface.
In project BALTACAR, partners responsible for the management and preservation of sensitive underwater cultural heritage (UCH) from three neighbouring countries worked together with partners in tourism. Together the partners made the underwater cultural heritage more visible, more accessible and safer.
The selected UCH sites in Finnish, Swedish and Estonian waters were properly documented. The collected historical information, 3D and photogrammetry images, and wreck cards can be used when planning and preparing for the dive. It provides divers and non-divers a virtual diving experience. For many potential visitors, the first contact with the dive park will be digital. That is why the produced materials and the interactive website are so important.
The new underwater infrastructure to selected wreck sites consists of mooring buoys for the boats bringing visitors to the sites and underwater information signs along the dive trails with basic information about the wrecks. The signs include a map displaying the location of the visitor, which makes it safer and easier to orientate under water.
The project results, publications and handbooks are free of use for all interested. The website contains materials, information on the developed attractions, the diving destinations of the region, and on what you need to know for travelling.
The project has already served as an inspiration to others planning to establish dive parks in their region.
Project information, Swedish partner
Project information, Finnish partner
Maritime Archaeology in Finland: History and Future Tasks (Article 2021)
CREATING A DIVE PARK FROM IDEA TO REALITY, Handbook
Baltic History Beneath Surface, Ed. Maili Roio (2020)
Dalarö dykpark en del av EU-projektet Baltacar, Sportdykaren 4-2019
Frozen in time, Diver Magazine UK (divernet.com) 2019
Frozen in Time 2, Diver Magazine UK (divernet.com) 2019
Eesti liitub UNESCO veealuse kultuuripärandi kaitse konventsiooniga (2020)
3D Model The Dalarö wreck/ Bodekull part 2, Sweden
Vrak utanför Dalarö dokumenteras (2018)
Veealuse muuseumi külastamiseks on vaja erivarustust ja -väljaõpet (2018)
Sander Kiviselg Sündimas on esimene veealune muuseum (Radio 2018)
Meriarkeologit kasvattavat Itämeren sukellusturismia Baltacar-projektin puitteissa (Blog 2018)
Laevavrakid saavad turismiatraktsioonideks (2017)
Allveearheoloogid on neli vrakki dokumenteerinud (2017)