Koziołek Matołek European Tale Centre
Medals available in the lobby and in the souvenir shop!
In Pacanów, on International Children’s Day and simultaneously the 70th anniversary of the birth of Koziołek Matołek (Matolek the Billy Goat), June 1, 2003, the initiator and then Minister of Culture, Mr. Waldemar Dąbrowski, officially declared Pacanów the European Capital of Fairy Tales. From that moment, work began to transform Pacanów and create a modern children’s cultural center—the European Fairy Tale Centre. Since then, the Festival of Children’s Culture has been held annually, attracting thousands of tourists from all over Poland.
In 2005, an institution named the European Fairy Tale Centre named after Koziołek Matołek in Pacanów was established. In November 2005, an application was submitted for funding from the European Economic Area Financial Mechanism to build a modern headquarters for the European Fairy Tale Centre in Pacanów. The project was co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, the Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship Self-Government, and the Municipality of Pacanów.
Since 2007, the Centre has regularly organized:
Children’s Meetings with Theater Masters,
Meetings with Music Masters,
The nationwide competition “Adventures of Koziołek Matołek”,
The “All the Children of the World” Photography Contest.
In January 2009, the implementation of the project “Promoting Pacanów as the European Capital of Fairy Tales through a series of cultural events” began, co-financed by the European Union through the European Regional Development Fund under the Świętokrzyskie Regional Operational Programme 2007-2013.
As part of the project, the following were organized:
The Gathering of Fairy Tale Characters,
Children’s Comic Book Encounters,
The 8th Festival of Children’s Culture,
Educational Fairs,
The competition “My Favorite Fairy Tale Character”,
The 4th National Competition “The Travels of Koziołek Matołek”.
The project also funded a nationwide radio and TV campaign, a billboard campaign, promotional leaflets and brochures presenting Pacanów as the European Capital of Fairy Tales, and the creation of the website www.stolica-bajek.pl (now available in our archive).
Since February 24, 2010, the modern Fairy Tale Centre building has been visited by tens of thousands of fairy tale lovers every year. In 2015, we became the second most visited children’s attraction in the Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship, welcoming nearly 170,000 children and adults that year.
In 2016, the Fairy Tale Centre entered a new phase of development. We signed an agreement to construct the Soria Moria Land and are swiftly moving forward with the expansion of the Fantasy Fairy Tale Park, which we aim to open in 2020.
