PM Milanovic said that for 300 years Croats from this region had to fight for their country and justice and that it was up to present-day generations to secure for their people to be able to live in their country from the fruits of their labour, clarity and vitality. Milanovic said that the first Sinjska Alka tournament that he could remember was the one held in 1971 and that although he was not even five years old, he would never forget it.
The museum was opened by the president of the Alka Knights Association, Stipe Jukic who said that the inauguration of the museum represented the completion of the Alka palace, a project worth 90 million kuna. The museum alone cost 25 million kuna. The project is partly financed by the government and the museum opened a day before the 300th edition of the Sinjska Alka lancing tournament.
The Sinjska Alka tournament commemorates a victory by 700 Croatian defenders of Sinj, about 30 kilometres inland from the southern coastal city of Split, against 60,000 Ottoman soldiers under Mehmed Pasha Celic on August 14, 1715. The competition features period-clad horsemen riding at full gallop and aiming their lances at an iron ring, called the alka, which is suspended from a rope above the race track. The Sinjska Alka tournament was inscribed on UNESCO's world intangible cultural heritage list in 2010.
The opening was also attended by Culture Minister Boris Sipus, Regional Development and EU Funds Minister Branko Grcic, Defence Minister Ante Kotromanovic, Economy Minister Ivan Vrdoljak, Enterprise Minister Gordan Maras, Tourism Minister Darko Lorencin, President's advisor Andro Krstulovic Opara and Split-Dalmatia County Prefect Zlatko Zevrnja.
(Text and foto: HINA)