Bucharest – The City Hall of Sovata will build a theme park dedicated to bear species around the globe, an investment estimated at EUR 2.5 million euros that will get European funding.

“Where did the idea come from? Lately we still have problems with bears, but not only us. And then I said that, anyway, if we have bears in Targu Mure, and in Cluj-Napoca, we have always had bears and, including on the city’s coat of arms we have a bear fur, we also have Bear Lake. Then we said to make a theme park about bears, about the species of bears that live around the globe and they should be presented in Sovata,” Mayor Fulop Laszlo Zsolt told the media on Friday.

He said that the project will be carried out on the land of a former degraded greenhouse complex and aims to transform an industrial area into a civic and tourist circuit.

“The park will not shelter live animals, but will rely on education and interactivity, and the entire perimeter will be arranged in the form of a map that reproduces the silhouette of a bear. Visitors will thus be able to explore the habitats of different species through modern installations. It will be a route designed in the shape of a bear. At Capul Ursului there will be a building, a main pavilion, which will be circular, made of wood, will be provided with a reception area, exhibition space, video projection room, toilets and spaces for staff. There you can also watch cartoons, so you know that we have done some investigations, if you can say so, and many species of bear are found in cartoons: pandas, polar bears, brown bears and there are many of them,” the mayor detailed.

According to the project, realistic 3D models and thematic installations will be placed in the areas that correspond to the bear’s paws on the map, which will present the specific habitats of each breed.

At the same time, the buildings will be made of natural materials for a discreet architecture, integrated with the local landscape.

The mayor estimates that the new structure will become a major attraction point for families, managing to combine outdoor recreation with the educational process.

“We hope that it will be a theme park for all generations and that, by attracting children, we will bring grandparents, parents, and everyone,” said the mayor of Sovata.

European funding will be provided through the axis dedicated to the reconversion of degraded industrial areas and it is estimated that the project will be carried out in 4-5 years.

The mayor said that the initiative of the Sovata City Hall consolidates an old tourist tradition of the resort, as the most famous symbol of the city remains the naturalised bear on the shore of Bear Lake, with which tourists have been taking photos for more than half a century.

The black and white or sepia images made in the ’70s and ’90s with this specimen have become a family emblem for entire generations of Romanians, being completed by a second replica, carved in wood, which can also be found at  the resort.