Ancona Italian Capital of Culture 2028, investments of over 50 million

50 million euros will be invested to support the Ancona Italian Capital of Culture 2028 project, the title of which was awarded today, 18 March, by the Minister of Culture Alessandro Giuli at the suggestion of the jury chaired by Davide Maria Desavio, who judged the dossier presented by the capital of the Marche region to be 'excellent'.
An additional seven million will be spent on the planned programme of events, with one million coming from the Mic and the other six from municipal resources and, above all, private contributions. "We are interested indurable investments, which are capable of giving the city a perspective," explains Mayor Daniele Silvetti, speaking of an extraordinary "urban, social and productive regeneration of a city that has 2,400 years of history".

After all, the four trajectories on which the structure of the project is based (Questo Mare, Via Maestra, Adesso Parco, Mare Culturale) summarise the city's riches and what its role could be, reconstructing a symbolic and cultural pact between Ancona, its sea and its citizens, restoring to the community and to the country the profound sense of a city that not only tells of what it has been, but what it wants to become, a place that lights up, that regenerates, that experiments with a new concept of cultural heritage, in a present that becomes momentum, transformation, a shared horizon that builds the future.

'Ancona. This now', the title of the dossier that beat the other 9 finalist candidatures and taken from a passage by Ancona poet Francesco Scarabicchi, gives the idea of what this city wants to be: to be a bridge between historical memory and planning for the future. "One of our great objectives," adds the mayor, "is also to give a hand to the inland areas, to the small municipalities that are having a very difficult time. Silvetti also looks beyond the regional borders: Ancona has a geographic centrality in the Adriatic, it is the seat of the permanent secretariat of the Adriatic-Ionian initiative, hence of an Adriatic-Ionian macro-region: a diplomatic and economic weight, but from 2028 also a cultural one, capable of boosting the business of the ten member countries.

The Adriatic, the port, millennial history, culture as an engine of development: today Ancona becomes the symbol of an entire territory that believes in beauty. And the sea is central to this vision of the future. It is no coincidence that one of the first projects that will take shape between now and 2028 is that of a museum of the civilisation of the sea: "A structure that was missing despite the fact that the city has a tradition and a great port," the mayor announces.

Ancona 2028 will come four years after Pesaro 2024, which was able to produce more than one million presences and, above all, more than 20 million in induced revenue in its year as Italian Capital of Culture. "The title of Italian Capital of Culture returning to the Marche testifies to the enormous potential of our region and the greatness of a heritage that wants to be discovered by Italia and the entire world," concluded the President of the Region, Francesco Acquaroli.