The coastal town of Pesaro has beaten nine other cities for the title of Italy’s Capital of Culture for 2024. The culture ministry made the announcement on Wednesday.
The seaside city of Pesaro as Italy’s Capital of Culture 2024, the culture ministry announced on Wednesday. It beat competition from Ascoli Piceno, Chioggia, Grosseto, Mesagne, Sestri Levante/Tigullio, Siracusa, Paestum/Alto Cilento, Viareggio, and Vicenza.
Each city presented their bids in front of a jury before Culture minister Dario Franceschini unveiled the winner. Pesaro’s presentation is La natura della cultura.
What cultural interests does Pesaro have?
Located in the Italian region of Le Marche, on the Adriatic Sea, Pesaro is the birthplace of composer Gioacchino Rossini. It holds a famous opera festival.
Pesaro also has a 15th-century Ducal Palace and Rocca Costanza castle, and a Romanesque-Gothic Basilica, built between the fifth and 14th centuries.
Cultural Capitals for 2022 and 2023
The 2022 Capital of Culture is Procida, a tiny island in the Gulf of Naples. The Roman satirist, Juvenal, described the island as a barren place. Later, during Roman rule, Procida became a renowned resort for the patrician class of Rome.
Procida takes over from Parma which received the culture capital status in 2020, but kept the title in 2021 to make up for the negative effects of the covid lockdowns.
The 2023 title goes to Brescia and Bergamo jointly after the government bypassed the usual application process in a “symbol of rebirth”. The two northern cities were very badly hit by the covid-19 pandemic.
