L’Aquila is the Italian Capital of Culture 2026, Culture Minister Gennaro Sangiuliano said this week.
He made the announcement during a ceremony at the ministry in Rome, in the presence of the jury chaired by journalist and writer Davide Maria Desario.
The other cities in the running for the one million euro in state funding to implement the projects set out in their bid were Agnone (province of Isernia), Alba (Cuneo), Gaeta (Latina), Latina, Lucera (Foggia), Maratea (Potenza), Rimini, Treviso, and a union of municipalities in Valdichiana Senese (Siena).
“L’Aquila is about to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the earthquake, an event that affected us not only as institutions, but also as citizens,” said L’Aquila Pierluigi Biondi referring to the 6.3 magnitude earthquake on April 6, 2009, that killed 309 people in the Abruzzo regional capital and surrounding towns and villages, left 1,500 people injured and tens of thousands more without homes and caused billions of euro in damage to infrastructure and cultural heritage.
“Being the Italian capital of culture is not a compensation but an element around which to rebuild the social fabric of our community,” continued Biondi.
“Culture is a founding element, it is recovery of identity and projection into the future,” he added.”The other finalist cities will be part of this journey.
We guarantee that we will be up to the task assigned to us…long live Italy,” concluded Biondi.
