In 2025, for an entire year, Lucera and the Dauni Mountains will be the capitals of culture of Puglia.
The Region, as already done for Mesagne in 2023 and for Monte Sant’Angelo this year, will invest significant economic resources so as to contribute to the creation of a program of events that will enhance – in a social, tourist and cultural key – the tangible and intangible heritage of the City of Art dear to Frederick II and of the 29 villages of the Dauni Mountains, after the shared candidacy as Italian Capital of Culture.
This will be the theme at the center of a whole day of work and discussion to be held on Tuesday 14 May, in the Palazzo Ducale in Pietramontecorvino. It will begin at 10 am, with institutional greetings from Domenico Zuppa, mayor of Pietramontecorvino; Giuseppe Nobiletti, president of the Province of Foggia; and Noè Andreano, vice-president of the ANCI Puglia steering committee.
Speakers will follow: Giuseppe Pitta, mayor of Lucera; Toni Matarelli, mayor of Mesagne; Pierpaolo D’Arienzo, mayor of Monte Sant’Angelo; Pasquale Gatta, project coordinator for Monte Sant’Angelo and Lucera; Aldo Patruno, director of the Tourism Department of the Puglia Region.
In the afternoon session, which will start at 4.30 pm, there will be a round table moderated by journalist Piero Paciello focused on the ‘Dossier Lucera, Italian Capital of Culture: proposals and perspectives’. Speakers at the round table will be Giuseppe Pitta, mayor of Lucera; Gianfilippo Mignogna, mayor of Biccari; Stefania Russo, mayor of Bovino; Mario Simonelli, mayor of Orsara di Puglia; Lucilla Parisi, mayor of Roseto Valfortore.
In the evening, from 9pm, the Hanging Garden will host first the concert of the ‘Duo De Mutiis-Luceri’, then that of the Orchestral Ensemble Suoni del Sud with ‘Pensieri e parole di Mogol’. In addition to promoting the wonder of the historical-artistic and cultural heritage of Lucera, the program of the Capital of Culture of Puglia 2025 will have to enhance the ‘melting pot’ of cultures, human-architectural and naturalistic landscapes of the 29 municipalities of the Dauni Mountains; the genius loci expressed by the historical-identifying events of the villages.
Just think of the ancient and spectacular procession-pilgrimage that every 16 May, since 1889, Pietramontecorvino dedicates to Sant’Alberto, moving hundreds of people from the village to the precious archaeological site of Montecorvino. Events, those of tradition, which characterize Lucera and each of the 29 municipalities of the Dauni Mountains which, with the Swabian centre, have shared the path of defining the national candidacy for Capital of Culture and which will now share the path of the City of Art in programming relating to ‘Lucera and Monti Dauni capitals of culture of Puglia 2025’.
