Supported by Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, the European Fairy Tale Centre has transformed the small Polish village of Pacanów into a fairy tale come true. The Centre has led to a boom in tourism and income opportunities for local residents.
Being the biggest tourist attraction of the region, the European Fairy Tale Centre is a place for the imagination, fun and education. It inspires children, young people as well as adults to get acquainted with fairy tales from all over Europe, including the Norwegian tale about ‘White-Bear-King-Valemon’. The centre has a library with a reading room, a bookshop, a cinema and a theater. It is surrounded by a beautiful garden with huts, space for playing, and an outdoor amphitheater. The centre hosts numerous shows, festivals, film screenings, workshops and theater performances for children.
Boost
Each year, crowds of tourists and school classes from all over Poland visit the centre. This has given the once sleepy town a huge boost – new jobs, new restaurants, new lodgings, and shops with souvenirs. Pacanów has now found its place among Poland's tourist destinations, with over 160 000 visitors per year. All attracted to the small village hosting the European Fairy Tale Centre.
It is no coincidence that the centre was built in Pacanów. The town is well known to generations of Poles, thanks to one of the most popular characters of children's literature, Koziołek Matołek, the silly goat. Koziołek Matołek travelled the world, from Africa through the ‘Wild West’ and Asia, in search of Pacanów – the one only place in the world where goats could get hooved.
The European Fairy Tale Centre was supported by Iceland, Norway and Lichtenstein under the 2004-2009 Education Programme in Poland.