Évora will be European Capital of Culture in 2027, along with Liepaja in Latvia, it was announced this Wednesday (7th December 2022) at a press conference in Lisbon at the Centro Cultural de Belém (CCB). It is the fourth time a Portuguese city has been awarded the title, after Lisbon (1994), Porto (2001) and Guimarães (2012).
Évora was chosen from a group of four finalists, which also included Aveiro, Braga and Ponta Delgada. The announcement was made by the president of the international jury, Beatriz Garcia. Évora will have a financial allocation of 29 million euros from national and European funds, as revealed in October by the Minister of Culture, Pedro Adão e Silva.
The city won the battle to the title with a "daring, but also very honest" proposal, according to the coordinator of the Alentejo application mission team, Paula Mota Garcia.
"Our proposal was bold, but also very honest. All the candidacy concept and its cultural and artistic programme are based on the Alentejo way of being and living, in the wandering as a full conscience that we, as humans, are always in relation with everything that surrounds us", can be read, in a press release.
In the statement from the Évora 2027 Mission Team, the coordinator welcomed the decision of the international panel of experts, who chose Évora to represent Portugal as ECOC in 2027 and for having grasped the motto of the candidacy, the typically Alentejo expression of "vagar", which means to wander.
"We are very pleased that the panel of experts that evaluates the applications has listened, and understood, what "vagar" means, and what it can mean for Europe and the world, as a possible response to the challenges we collectively face," Paula Mota Garcia stressed.
In the same statement, the Mayor of Évora, Carlos Pinto de Sá, also considered that the choice is an opportunity for the municipality and for the Alentejo, but equally "for Europe and for the world. This is the moment we have been waiting for and "vagar" is this: a proposal for the future for Humanity" he stated.
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