This year's European Capitals of Cultures are Maribor in Slovenia and Guimarães in Portugal. Maribor has around 160,000 inhabitants, and has chosen the theme of Pure Energy for its year (arguing that creativity + heritage + education + research + digital literacy + cultural tourism + economy + ecology = pure energy). It hopes the year will help the sustainable development of the wider eastern Slovenia region. More details can be found here.
Guimarães, a city of 50,000 poeple, also has ambitions to use culture to encourage wider economic development (in northern Portugal in its case), but has chosen to build its year around three 'values': City, Citizenship and Participation, and the European dimension. Their website can be found here.
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