The capital of North Macedonia has been declared the European cultural capital for 2028, it was announced by the House of History in Brussels.
Skopje and the popular Montenegrin tourist town of Budva were shortlisted for the title.
Skopje will share it with the Czech city of Budějovice and another city in France, which is expected to be nominated in December.
Launched in 1985 by the Greek Minister of Culture, Melina Mercouri, and her French counterpart, Jack Lang, this title celebrates the diversity and richness of European cultures, putting cities in the spotlight. For almost 40 decades, various European cities have been proud bearers of this title, while the concept of the European cultural capital has changed from a simple artistic festival to a complex development project. It aims to promote cultural diversity in Europe, to highlight commonalities and for countries to exchange cultural experiences in the long-term development of cities.
The Minister of Culture of North Macedonia, Bisera Kostadinovska-Stojčevska, said that Skopje is "ready to respond to this challenge".
"It seems that Skopje has been created over the centuries for such a challenge. With the European and Macedonian flag, we will take the creative energy to expand to the entire continent. Is there a better place than Skopje to do this?", asked Kostadinovska-Stojčevska.
"The announcement of Skopje 'European Capital of Culture' for 2028 is a great success for our country especially considering our designation as a country aiming for membership in the European Union," she told the state news agency, MIA.
The title of the European capital of culture for the year 2028 was also given to Prizren, at least with discussions. In June 2021, the Network of Culture Organizations in Prizren in collaboration with the "Lumbardhi" foundation organized the public presentation "Prizreni as the European Capital of Culture". This was announced as the launch of the RrOK initiative to enable the application of the city of Prizren for this title according to the vision defined in the Management Plan of the Historic Center of Prizren 2019-2028. During the presentation, Emina Vishniq, former CEO and head of the "Rijeka 2020" European Capital of Culture program, elaborated on the main pillars of the current concept of the European Capital of Culture, the opportunities that such a designation offers as well as the challenges of the candidacy process in this program. He said that in Prizren he had found a group of enthusiastic activists who consider that Prizren can travel on this path.
© KOHA. All rights are reserved.
