One wave of the magic wand of children's creativity at this year's Museum Night transformed the Ecomuseum-Ecomuseo "Batana" into a fairytale place that gave visitors the opportunity to experience heritage through the eyes of the youngest. The story of authors and storytellers Milan Medak and Sanja Lađarević, about the fearless turtle Katarina who swam across the Adriatic Sea from Greece to Istria to reach the Rovinj island after which she was named, was told through an exhibition of impressive drawings by Rovinj elementary school students, a creative bookmarker workshop, and the narration of Katarina's adventures in Croatian and Italian, as well as the Rovinj dialect, which was translated into a special booklet as a gift.

In front of the museum itself, the smallest Rovinj batana, “Peîcia,” painted in vibrant, childish colors, raised its sail as a sign of welcome, and upon entering the museum, as befits a program dedicated to children, visitors were greeted with a broad smile by elementary school student Adriano Zaharija. In numerous previous workshops, small batana sails painted by children’s hands have colorfully decorated the museum’s display, from which, for the first time, a large batana sail was stretched out as a warm background for a bookmarker workshop. Paper turtles of various sizes swam across a large table, paper sails fluttered, and little visitors, with the help of workshop leader Jasna Bešker, painted them with colors and imagination so that they could stick them on wooden sticks and use them to mark pages while reading.

And so that both parents and children would have an interesting and educational read at hand after the completion of the national reading challenge "15 by 15: All of Croatia reads to children", each visitor received a trilingual booklet in Rovinj, Croatian and Italian "Katarina the Turtle", a little gem that connects languages, generations, and love for heritage. Along with the precious translation into Rovinj, signed by Nives and Alessio Giuricin, the story by Milan Medak and Sanja Lađarević came to life through children's illustrations by Desiree Gita Ugrin and Leonard Kosara Haber, graphics by Mišel Tonkić and printing by PrintStudio - tisak & reklame.

Art works created at the interactive narrative-storytelling workshop "Tarta Katarina - Tarta Caterina" held on the occasion of last year's Museum Night, and works inspired by St. Eufemia and Rovinj, students of the 2nd grade of "Vladimir Nazor" elementary school turned the museum gallery into an ideal place for telling the story of the turtle Katarina in two terms.

Sanja Lađarević, Milan Medak and Nives Giuricin took turns reading the story of the turtle Katarina to the children in Croatian, Italian and the Rovinj dialect so that they could experience the beauty of linguistic expression, but also participate by answering numerous questions and adopting the important messages of the story. They were helped in this by a presentation that accompanied the story with photographs about the importance of friendship, perseverance and courage, caring for the environment, attention to the elderly and the value of heritage roots, and a map and globe served to make Katarina's journey a small geography lesson.

About the impressions of this inspiring gathering with children, Prof. Milan Medak says: "I would like to thank the curious children and their parents who experienced the adventures of the brave turtle Katarina with us: from Greece all the way to Rovinj, the Rovinj schools for their initiative and cooperation, and the Ecomuseum "Batana" which unites us all so that we can tell stories, draw, laugh and create together!".

And the main message of this special evening, in which the Ecomuseum "Batana" once again paid tribute to children and their role was emphasized by the director of the Institution "House of Batana", Nives Giuricin:

"The Museum Night that we dedicated to the youngest this year is the result, like every activity of our museum, of dedicated teamwork - from the idea, decoration, promotion, to cooperation with external collaborators and friends of the museum, with a lot of shared joy that binds us most strongly. We thank all the visitors who shared this unforgettable evening with us and helped us to make children feel and remember the richness and beauty of our heritage, whose guardians they will one day become.

We hope that the story of the turtle Katarina, with all the beautiful and valuable messages it carries, will continue its life and remain close to children. The Night of the Museum, as the first event of the year, has, in the best way, announced a very important year for our Ecomuseum in which we will celebrate important anniversaries, but also create new values ​​for the entire community for which we exist and which we are trying to connect as closely as possible.