Europe has 3 capitals of culture that no-one’s heard of
NewsOn January 1, 2023, Europe will have three new capitals of culture.
Bet you can’t name them.
In descending order of obscurity they are:
Timișoara (pictured) in Romania,
Veszprem in Hungary
and Eleusis in Greece.
The capital of culture title has lost all credibility.
Romanian revolution started in Timisoara in 1989. Pretty famous city.
I can still picture the look on Nicky’s face when he realized the crowd had turned against him.
Remember:
just because you don’t know about something, does not mean it is obscure.
To remember that would require a sense of humility this blogger often lacks.
Well said. Eleusis (quick glance at Wiki!) was the birth place of that nonentity Aeschylus (irony alert). a pretty good excuse I’d say.
Wait and see about the disaster Bodø 2024 coming up.
It certainly isn’t London! What was arguably the Cultural Capital of the world, is now, through Covid, Governmental decisions and comments from those that should know better, left in Cultural pieces – those of a cultural mind can only be left in disbelief at the idiots that have blown London off of it’s exemplary perch.
On the contrary, the culture capital title has gained in credibility, if it broadens our awareness of a cultural heritage we may not be familiar with.
Don’t loose YOUR credibility, dear Mr Lebrecht, with such an assertion!
Being that the Brits are out of the EU now its a wonder you care.
Nevertheless the initiative seeks to
Regenerate cities
Raise the international profile of cities;
Enhance the image of cities in the eyes of their own inhabitants
Breathe new life into a city’s culture
Boost tourism
That may explain why they choose lesser known places.
Isn’t it the whole idea that this supports lesser know (or unknown) cultural places? Weirdly disdaining this, Norman..
My dear friend, if you haven’t heard of Timișoara , you are just an ignorant and this is not our fault. You are just mean, an irelevant picture like this can be shot even in London or Paris.
I’ve certainly heard of Eleusis, I visited it years ago, a sort of pilgrimage. It is a major archeological site, home of the important mystery religions in ancient Greece.
Quite – I knew all about it by the time I was ten. I was mad on Ancient Greek culture. Still am.
Eleusis had its glory days in the distant past.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eleusinian_Mysteries
The theater genre of tragedy was born in Eleusis. Perfect for today’s Europe.
Leopold Auer was from Veszprem. They continue to hold an Auer Festival. It has been a UNESCO “City of Music” for several years. A bit of Google searching indicates that the music festival situation in Veszprem is pretty intense and diversified. Maybe this Capital of Culture title is more meaningful and digs deeper than you give it credit for.
Previous capitals of culture include Galway, Cork, Sibiu, Pécs, Turku, Maribor, Košice, Umeå, Leeuwarden, Rijeka to name a few. Not exactly well known cities, and I would hazard a guess that the good people of Timisoara, Veszprem, and Eleusis had never heard of these places (apart from the cities in their respective countries). What exactly is your point? The reason for electing cities as a European Capital of Culture is to enable those places to organise ‘a series of cultural events with a strong pan-European dimension. Being a European Capital of Culture can be an opportunity for a city to generate considerable cultural, social and economic benefits and it can help foster urban regeneration, change the city’s image and raise its visibility and profile on an international scale.’ The choice of cities you listed seems to fit in well with the intended purpose. Are you suggesting that only cities like London, Amsterdam, Paris etc. should be chosen? Or that countries like Romania, Hungary and Greece don’t deserve to have their cities honoured in such a way?
To which list one might add Plovdiv (2019), a beautiful and historic city with a fully functioning and hugely impressive hilltop Roman amphitheatre and a first-class opera company. Birthplace of Boris Christoff.
NL’s ego is impressively big. If he doesn’t know anything, it is non-important and obscure. Based on the number of things he ignores, the world must be a very dark place
Hail Europe… where there is also attention to culture apart from the big metropolitan centres…
I know all three….You shouldn´t have skipped school so often…
The anthropo-anti-racists have rendered the word Culture unusable.
You can post a sight from the center of Timisoara and it won t look obscure at all.
Your choise.
Or what you want to prove
By adding the “(pictured)” qualifier next to Timisoara the owner of this blog added insult to injury: showing an image of a beaten up railway car instead of a lovely city vista obviously serves only one purpose — to disqualify the city and its candidacy. And, yes, I do know all three cities and I can add a detail that might cause NL to reconsider his classification in terms of their obscurity: there are some illustrious people that purchased high-quality porcelain in Herend, which is just outside Veszprem — including Queen Victoria and Lady Di, the emperor Franz Joseph etc. just to name a few.
I too have been to Eleusis.
And Margaret Matzenauer and Ioan Holander both came from Timisoara. Nobelist in literature Herta Müller studied there.
Not to mention Johnny Weissmuller (Tarzan), as well as composer Iosif Ivanovici, conductors Charles Bruck and Cristian Macelaru, plus soccer coach legend Stefan Kovacs, who guided Ajax Amsterdam during its glory days when Cruyff played there.
Who wrote this? An American?
Norman, mission accomplished- now everyone knows these three towns. Well done. As for Elevsis or Elevsina as we call it, it is a major ancient city with great archeological significance. Today it is an important industrial centre with shipbuilding as the main activity. This focus and investment will certainly deliver positives to the place.
Never heard of the Elusinian mysteries of
Persephone and Demeter? I would love to see Eleusis today.
https://filarmonicabanatul.ro/
https://www.vvve.hu/en/Our-Conductor/The-Founder
https://2023eleusis.eu/en/programme-announcement/
And much more, of course.
https://veszprembalaton2023.hu/en/page/welcome
https://timisoara2023.eu/en/about/
https://timisoara2023.eu/en/visit-timi%C8%99oara/
Margaret Boudreaux, Slipped Disc is based in England. Americans are cultural descendants of the British so we both think we are the center of the universe. Does the UK acknowledge they are part of Europe despite Brexit? Norman at SD is angry with Veszprem (Hungary) because they invited Anna Netrebko to their music festival in July 2023. The EU started the Capitals of Culture program in 1985 to promote the common history and diversity of Europeans.
“Norman at SD is angry with Veszprem (Hungary) because they invited Anna Netrebko to their music festival in July 2023”
We all should be angry. The fact that you are not, tells me more than I want to know about you.
Just because you can’t doesn’t mean others can’t. Timisoara and Veszprem are great places. And how can anything in Greece not be fine? Fortunately: The British definition of “culture”, “politics” and “Europe” are only marginally relevant.
Eleusis is a suburb of Athens. The conclusion is too drastic.