Braga to be the Capital of Culture of the Atlantic Axis in 2020

The city of Braga was unanimously named the Capital of the Culture of the Atlantic for 2020, succeeding Santa Maria da Feira, announced the bracarense autarchy.

In a statement, the Braga City Council explains that the city’s choice to hold that title was held at a meeting of the Executive Committee of the Eixo Atlântico for Education and Culture, held in Guimarães, in which the municipalities present “were challenged to send contributions to the program thus giving the opportunity to new cultural dynamics with the municipalities of Northern Portugal and Galicia. ”

In addition to Santa Maria da Feira, also Vila Nova de Gaia in 2009, Viana do Castelo in 2011, Ourense in 2014 and Matosinhos and Vila Real in 2016 hosted the Cultural Capital of the Eixo Atlântico.

“Braga, for the historical and cultural importance that it has in the heart of the Northwest Peninsular, fully justifies the reception of this important Iberian event,” stresses in the text the councilwoman of the Culture of Braga, Lydia Dias.

According to the official, the title of Cultural Capital of the Atlantic Axis “could boost dynamics that will work as a test for a larger organization such as the European Capital of Culture 2027.”

The holder of the Culture folder in the municipality reinforces the idea that the municipality of Braga intends to affirm Culture as “a priority in the scope of municipal action, an option confirmed by the declaration of Braga as UNESCO Media City” and by the “ambition” to be Capital European Union of Culture in 2027.

“The reception of the Capital of Culture of the Atlantic Eixo becomes a decisive step in the process of involving the community in a growing dynamic of creation and cultural enjoyment,” adds Lídia Dias.

The program, which will be publicly presented in June 2019, will run from February 8 to November 28, 2020: “It will be the return of jazz to Braga in one of the proposed initiatives, as well as an event focused exclusively on urban art, has as a pretension to take Culture to the peripheries. Among the proposals presented is also the program “Braga no Eixo”, which aims to take the Bracarian cultural projects roaming through the municipalities that make up the Atlantic Axis “, reads.

The municipality also reveals that it “aims to create a permanent legacy of this capital through the creation of a Garden devoted to the Atlantic Axis, as well as a gallery where all the winning works of the successive editions of the Atlantic Axis Painting Biennial will be exhibited.”

The Atlantic Axis of the North-West Peninsular is a cross-border Association of Municipalities, of private, a nonprofit law that configures the urban system of the northern-Galicia Euroregion of Portugal.

This association was based on the Framework Convention on cross-border cooperation between communities or territorial authorities of 1990. At this moment, the Mayor of Braga, Ricardo Rio, presides over the General Assembly of the Atlantic Axis.