Pordenone wins title of Capitale Italiana della Cultura 2027.

The northeastern Italian city of Pordenone will be Italy's Capital of Culture 2027, the culture minister Alessandro Giuli announced at a ceremony in Rome on Wednesday.

The city in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region saw off competition from the other nine finalists: Alberobello, Brindisi and Gallipoli (Puglia), Aliano (Basilicata), La Spezia and Savona (Liguria), Pompeii and Sant’Andrea di Conza (Campania) and Reggio Calabria (Calabria).

In addition to the prestigious title, Pordenone wins funding of €1 million to support the cultural projects outlined its winning bid, entitled: "Pordenone 2027: City that surprises".

The initiative, promoted by the culture ministry, is part of the broader aim of celebrating Italy's cultural heritage and enhancing Italian cities through culture.

The 2025 title holder is Agrigento which succeeded Pesaro as Capitale Italiana della Cultura 2024, in turn following Bergamo and Brescia in 2023 and the island of Procida in 2022.

In 2020 Parma retained the title for a second year, in 2021, to make up for the negative effects of the covid lockdowns, while the Italian title skipped a year in 2019 when Matera became European Capital of Culture.

Italy's previous culture capitals include Cagliari, Lecce, Perugia, Ravenna and Siena in 2015, Mantua in 2016, Pistoia in 2017 and Palermo in 2018.

The 2026 title holder will be L'Aquila.