EU supports development of tourism in western Moldova

The European Union provided financial support for the Ungheni Town Hall to start a project for attracting tourists. Over 9.5 million lei were spent on the project “An integrated approach to the sustainability of tourism production”, Info-Prim Neo reports. As part of this project, an album titled “Ungheni Town in images” was published. Author Lucia Bacalu selected over 80 images that present the locality. The album was edited in Romanian and English and copies were distributed through cafes and restaurants. Another part of the project was the movie “Ungheni: a small town with a big heart”. Moreover, a bilingual map of the locality was published. Besides general info about the town it presents the places and things that the Ungheni people are proud of. The Eiffel bridge, designed by the famous French engineer who also designed the tower in Paris. The bridge was built in 1876 and weighs 355 tonnes. It connects the two banks of the Prut River and is meant for railway traffic. The bridge has survived wars, bombings and floods. It has never been repaired, although trains have always circulated. The people in Ungheni like to say that there are two Eiffel towers in the world: one vertical in Paris and one horizontal in Ungheni, as the local authorities observed during a fact-finding visit in Ungheni. Another thing people there take pride in is the chestnut alley in the center of the town, one the longest chestnut alleys in Europe, with a length of 3 km. Head of the EU Delegation to Moldova Dirk Schuebel attended the opening of a new EU information center in Ungheni. He said he convinced himself that the town played the role of Moldovans’ bridge to the EU and was pleasantly surprised that the people in Ungheni were so active and managed to access EU funds. Ungheni town initiated over 30 development project and received about €40 million in grants from the EU.