It's time for balance sheets and projects for many Italian cultural institutions: this is the case for the Unesco site of Aquileia, which this morning summed up the 2022 season and presented its programs for the new year.
The last twelve months have seen the return to pre-pandemic numbers for the Friulian town, custodian of an archaeological heritage unique in the world: over 325,000 people have visited the places of culture in Aquileia, led by the extraordinary complex of the Basilica. Evening openings, walks with archaeologists, educational workshops, tastings, experimental archeology events have aroused the interest of the Italian and international public.

"We have worked on a program focused on investments, projects, collaboration networks - explains Roberto Corciulo, president of the Aquileia Foundation - and we are presenting ourselves with a shared program for 2023 and with ever greater awareness of the importance and value of the UNESCO recognition conferred in Aquileia in 1998 and which is 25 years old this year. Aquileia is a World Heritage Site and the key word with which we intend to decline it is dialogue, a value that has always been present in the history of this land".

"In Aquileia we experienced an extraordinary season of restarting - said the mayor Emanuele Zorino - Aquileia is increasingly confirmed as a place where it is nice to stay, stop, return and this response from visitors and the public of the events (over 100,000 estimated attendance) stimulates us to enrich our offer by expanding the typology of proposals and to make the city, our places of culture and our infrastructures more and more welcoming".
 

Numerous initiatives are scheduled for the new year, from the 14th edition of the Aquileia Film Festival, when Piazza Capitolo will be transformed into a stage for the latest proposals from archeology cinema (August 1-8), to the historical re-enactment Tempora in Aquileia, which for three days will invite the public to relive the atmosphere of two thousand years ago (June 23-25).

Like every year, in May the Night of Museums will animate the National Archaeological Museum, while in the second half of June and September the European Archeology and Heritage Days will be an opportunity to discover the Unesco site with open days in the excavation sites , concerts and theatrical walks.

“The season of concerts in the Basilica of Aquileia is rich and of the highest level with ten appointments with free admission from April to September - announces the director of the Society for the Conservation of the Basilica Andrea Bellavite - Aquileia and its Basilica are a heritage that belongs to the whole humanity, without exception. We will support and study all possible forms of inclusiveness and hospitality". 

Meetings, conferences, educational workshops and extraordinary openings will enliven the season at the Archaeological Museum and the Paleo-Christian Museum, while in the new Friday summer event, archeology will meet another local excellence, wine: tastings in the vineyard of the ancient baths and walks in the company of experts along unpublished routes between the Museum, the Basilica and the archaeological areas will be the prelude to Calici di Stelle, which will light up the atmosphere of Piazza Capitolo on 11 and 12 August with the best of DOC Friuli wine production Aquileia and regional.

"The National Archaeological Museum - explains the director Marta Novello - will propose a series of in-depth meetings during the spring dedicated to the "Mirabilia, masterpieces in comparison" initiative, of which a new edition is also planned for the autumn season, and new meetings within the cycle of conferences on the archives "La città viva"; the program of thematic visits and educational workshops in the Archaeological Museum and in the Paleochristian Museum are also confirmed, the extraordinary evening openings on Friday evenings in July and August, the now usual musical and theatrical appointments and meetings with the authors, in collaboration with some important local realities".

At the end of November, the Unesco site of Aquileia will celebrate its first 25 years: the city will celebrate the anniversary with a conference together with the Unesco sites and the archaeological sites of Friuli Venezia Giulia, to establish new collaborations and fine-tune the recipes of the future, in the perspective of a common path towards GO!2025 (the year in which Gorizia will be the European capital of culture) and looking a little beyond 2030 when the thousandth anniversary of the foundation of the Basilica of Aquileia will be celebrated. 

Finally, communication will also have its place in 2023 with the first "slow" guide to Aquileia published by Odòs and a series of ten podcasts created by Archeostorie and NWfactory, while collaborations will develop and consolidate with the European cultural path "Rotta dei Phoenicians”, the Way of Saints Cyril and Methodius and the Barcolana of Trieste.