by In Trieste
The Slovenian city of Nova Gorica and Italy’s Gorizia will become the 2025 European Capitals of Culture.
The announcement was made by the Slovenian committee on 19 December and was followed by inhabitants of the two cities celebrating in the streets, reports ANSA.
The Italian president Sergio Mattarella congratulated the two cities in his New Year’s eve address to the nation.
President Mattarella said: “Let us hope the cross-border capital of culture is a message for those border areas in #Europe and the world, which still struggle with, sometimes violent, conflicts. An inspiration to build a collaboration between different cultures and traditions.”
The European Union established the program of Culture Capitals in 1985 in order to highlight European diversity. It started with cities symbolic of European culture such as Athens, Florence and Paris, but the title and the money soon became a way of boosting damaged or industrially declining cities.
