The project named „Development of historical riverside protection area in Narva/Estonia and Ivangorod/Russia II stage“ or shortly „River promenades II“ was approved by the Estonia-Latvia-Russia cross border cooperation Programme within European Neighborhood and Partnership instrument 2007-2013.

The grant-contract was signed on 17th January 2012. The project is being implemented by Estonian and Russian partners. The project lead partner is Narva Town Department for City Property and Economy. The partner from the Russian side is Municipal Formation “Ivangorod Town”. The total budget of the project, which will last till February 2014, is 1 742 338,67 euro. The programme is co-financing 90% of the total costs or 1 568 104,80 euro. The co-financing of the partners makes 10% or 174 233,87 euro.

As the result of the project there will be reconstructed the upper level in Pimeaed (Dark Garden) Park, situated in Narva. Precisely the building works will take place on the part starting from the Hahn staircase till the fountain, and the road along the park territory. On Ivangorod side there will be built the part of the river promenade with total area 3570 m2 located to the north of the fortress and thematically meant for Fisher market.

Narva River bank areas bear very important historical and cultural value, which means good potential from the tourist point of view. Apart from building of the promenades, the project also foresees the promotion activities for tourist products “Historical riverside promenades”. The various promotion and fund-raising activities are planned via Mass Media and FAM trips to the journalists, tour operators and potential investors from both Russian and Estonian sides.

The project kick-off meeting was organized on 29th February 2012 in Narva. The partners discussed the partnership agreement, developed the systems for project management and monitoring, and approved the Steering Committee structure.

The given project is the follow-up of earlier implemented project named „Integrated development of historical riverside protection area in Narva/Estonia and Ivangorod/Russia“, which was co-financed by INTERREG IIIA Programme. In the framework of that project, which ended in 2009, there was developed the package of necessary documents to start the building works on the river promenades and setting-up of the tourist products „Historical promenades in Narva“ and „Historical promenades in Ivangorod“.

The strategic aim of the Estonia-Latvia-Russia cross border cooperation Programme within European Neighborhood and Partnership instrument 2007-2013 is to promote joint development activities for the improvement of the region’s competitiveness by utilising its potential and beneficial location in the cross roads between the EU and Russian Federation. The Programme web-site is www.estlatrus.eu.

Totally to the 1st Call of Proposals there were submitted 226 projects, only 25 of them were approved and got co-financing, including «River promenades II».