Rijeka Named 2020 European Capital of Culture

Rijeka (photo: croatia.hr)

The Croatian city of Rijeka has been named the 2020 European Capital of Culture on Thursday…

An independent panel of cultural experts decided that Rijeka will be designated as one of the two European Capitals of Culture in 2020 based on criteria specified by the European Union. Rijeka beat three other shortlisted Croatian cities – Dubrovnik, Pula and Osijek – to be selected for that title.

As European Capital of Culture, Rijeka will organise a series of cultural events with a strong European dimension during a given calendar year. Rijeka will share the title with an Irish city. The Ireland city will be chosen in July between shortlisted cities Galway, Limerick and Waterford.

San Sebastian in Spain and Wroclaw in Poland were this year’s European Capitals of Culture.

Rijeka can now call itself a European Culture Capital

The idea of selecting capitals of culture was proposed in 1985 by former actress Melina Mercouri, who was then Greece’s Minister of Culture, and her French counterpart Jack Lang. They came up with the idea of designating an annual Capital of Culture to bring Europeans closer together by highlighting the richness and diversity of European cultures and raising awareness of their common history and values.