The Initiative

In Athens was born the idea of the most successful European Cultural Policy. To have every year a European Capital of Culture. Athens was the first of these European Capitals in 1985 and it was the only cultural event that gathered all the Head of State of the United Europe.

The former Mayor of Athens, Nikitas Kaklamanis took in 2007 the initiative to create in Athens the Documentation Center on European Capitals of Culture. “As Mayor of Athens I felt that the birthplace of Democracy and the center of the first culture on the European Continent had to become one of the most important cultural cities in the world. I explained my strategy on culture with a book entitled «Athens, Eternal Cultural Capital». This is why a Center promoting the European Capitals of Culture was logically the most suitable initiative”.