Matera has inaugurated its year
as European capital of culture in 2019 - the first southern
Italian city to be granted this recognition.
The opportunity is "an occasion for the whole South", said
Premier Giuseppe Conte at the opening ceremony held at the
weekend in the city's Auditorium della Cava del Sole.
"As a southern man and premier" Bari-born Conte expressed
confidence that Matera's year as cultural capital will be an
occasion "for the whole South so that the future can be here",
promising fresh investments and a "a contract of development for
Basilicata", the city's region.
Once one of Europe's poorest cities, Matera became
internationally renowned when writer Carlo Levi was exiled by
Benito Mussolini's fascist regime to a town nearby in 1935,
describing in his novel Christ Stopped at Eboli the extreme
poverty he witnessed.
Conte quoted Levi at the inauguration ceremony - "Anyone who
sees Matera cannot help but be awe-struck, so expressive and
touching is its sorrowful beauty", citing the writer's Le Mille
Patrie (A Thousand Homelands).
Culture Minister Alberto Bonisoli said the European capital
of culture could "become a new model of development for the
whole South".
Bonisoli met with Tibor Navracsics, the European commissioner
for culture, before reaching Cava del Sole on which the ministry
has invested five million euros so it can host events this year,
the minister said.
The culture minister also said that talks are ongoing with
Milan's La Scala Theater "to organize something in Matera",
speaking about the possibility of staging short opera
productions "that last about an hour instead of three".
Conte has also said that the government will invest in
projects that are "sustainable, innovative and plausible".
"This must be the starting point for a wider project for the
entire south", the prime minister explained.
Large crowds of residents turned out to celebrate the
occasion for the city, known for the grottoes where families
used to live, the Sassi (stones) carved out of the limestone
that date back to Matera's prehistoric age.
UNESCO in 1993 declared the Sassi, once a symbol of the
city's extreme poverty, a world heritage site.
Mayor Raffaello De Ruggieri said that with its debut as
European capital of culture Matera is shifting from "shame to
redemption".
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