With the official handing over of the expression of interest to the Ministry of Culture, Sarzana has taken the first step on the path toward becoming a candidate for Italian Capital of Culture 2028. It is an initiative that transcends municipal boundaries to embrace the entire Val di Magra territory and, the City of Sarzana points out, is based on a collective, participatory and planning vision of the future.
The city wants to seize the challenge as a concrete opportunity to question its role, strengthen its ties with the territory and reinforce the dynamic relationship between memory, community and vision. Indeed, Sarzana wants to tell an idea of culture as a living engine of change and regeneration, capable of transforming urban and social space. And it does so with the strong support of the Liguria Region and in synergy with neighboring municipalities.
Sarzana is historically a crossroads, a borderland. In past centuries it has been the scene of disputes and exchanges, of passages and encounters, it has created bridges, dialogues and coexistences. The candidacy aims to make it a national model: a laboratory in which culture becomes a tool for urban mending, civil pact and social cohesion. The goal is to transform Sarzana into an emblematic case, a place where culture becomes the architrave of a new common living. Medieval fortresses open up to contemporaneity by becoming stages, squares become modern agoras once again, and suburbs reveal themselves as cultural poles: this is the Municipality’s intent. The planning includes a widespread calendar of events, festivals, performances, visual arts and moments of reflection involving the entire citizenry, restoring centrality and meaning to places.
Sarzana’s ambition is not to celebrate itself, but to propose a replicable paradigm for the whole of Italy. A model in which tradition and future are not in conflict but intertwined, creating a new territorial narrative. The candidacy takes shape within a long civic tradition that has always recognized in culture a collective and generative vocation.
Emblematic is the birth, in the early nineteenth century, of the Teatro degli Impavidi, built thanks to the private initiative of a few citizens. The Latin epigraph engraved in the redoubt - “forging customs, soothing the souls, encouraging virtues” - still represents the synthesis of that tension toward cultural elevation that Sarzana intends to reactivate in 2028. The heraldic lion, symbol of the theater and the city, is the ideal figure of civic courage that never stopped beating.
The candidacy feeds on a rich and layered history. From ancient Luni, Sarzana inherits a Mediterranean matrix founded on encounter and dialogue. Located along the Via Francigena, the city has always been traversed by travelers, traders and thinkers. A destiny reflected in the figure of Tommaso Parentucelli from Sarzana, who became pope under the name of Nicholas V and founded the Vatican Library. That gesture of opening knowledge, of spreading knowledge, is a cornerstone of the cultural vision that Sarzana intends to promote.
In the 20th century, the city stood out for its ideal energy and resistance to totalitarianism, becoming a symbol of freedom and democratic civilization. Its candidacy seeks to revive that role, calling together the new generations, the widespread knowledge and vital energies of the area to draw together a new horizon.
Alongside the historical and identity component, the candidacy includes a strategic goal: to stimulate creative entrepreneurship. Sarzana aims to become a center of cultural production that dialogues with sustainable tourism, social communication, the arts and new economies. The vision is of a city that opens to the world, generating enterprise, attractiveness and innovation, including economic innovation.
Methodologically coordinating the project will be PanSpeech, a company founded as a spin-off of the University of Siena, already experienced in supporting complex cultural applications. Their experience will ensure a solid and coherent project framework, capable of enhancing the specificities of the area within a broader framework.
The city’s cultural fabric is already alive. The Teatro degli Impavidi, still the beating heart of the city’s artistic life, offers programming ranging from drama to education. Fortress Firmafede, on the other hand, has become a container that hosts exhibitions, starting with the National Antiques Exhibition held every August, as well as events and concerts.
The Festival of the Mind, one of the most important Italian events dedicated to creativity and thought processes, is the flagship of a cultural proposal that has been able to grow and gain recognition. But Sarzana also hosts other major events, in a widespread system that now aims to be further strengthened and enhanced thanks to the candidacy.
The project is deeply participatory: citizens, associations, schools, artists, institutions and businesses are involved from the beginning in a process of co-creation. The goal is to build an inclusive cultural governance, capable of reflecting the plurality of the territory. Each phase will be accompanied by public moments, transparent information channels and open spaces for discussion.
In the coming months, the composition of the Scientific Committee, which will bring together authoritative figures from the world of culture, art, entertainment and research, will be announced. The visual identity of the candidacy, destined to become the recognizable sign of this collective journey to 2028, will also be unveiled.
“Culture is not only an intellectual enrichment for individuals,” says Sarzana Mayor Cristina Ponzanelli, “but is above all a transversal engine of sustainable economic growth, social cohesion and enhancement of local identity. Proud of its illustrious history and uniqueness, Sarzana wants to incorporate into its strategic vision a participatory, inclusive design that makes culture the key resource for community life. Ours is a path born from a clear vision, built throughout the last few years, which finds its crowning in the next three, looking to 2028 as the fulfillment of a full and conscious development. We are proud of our roots and identity, and we want to continue to be protagonists in the contemporary world. We thank as of now the mayors and administrators who have already shared this path that is of an entire territory and open to every positive energy. We are inclusive, open and convinced that all together we can tell the great beauty of our history and our future.”
“We recognize in Sarzana,” says Maria Cristina Addis, university professor of semiotics and head of scientific content for the design team. “An exemplary case of how culture can turn into social infrastructure. The candidacy path takes on a distinctive intensity here, thanks to the widespread awareness that culture is a foundation of individual freedom and an essential cement for the community. Sarzana turns to the future its rich and fascinating past, which it shares with so many places in the country, while discarding any celebratory path. Thus is born a courageous opening to active participation, to programming rooted in the territory, in which culture becomes everyone’s right and an essential common good.”
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| Sarzana bids to be Italian Capital of Culture 2028 |
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