Naples, – The celebrations for the 2019 World Cup officially begin 2500 years of history of the city of Naples. A year of events, exhibitions, shows and cultural initiatives that will pay homage to the rich historical, artistic, scientific and identity heritage of Neapolis. It starts on March 25th from the Teatro di San Carlo with "Naples Millionaire”, where 80 years ago Eduardo De Filippo staged the opera's premiere.
The celebrations of Millenary Naples they foresee more than 2500 events, artists, places, twinning, institutional partnerships and international collaborations, thanks to an open, participatory and dynamic program designed to actively involve the city. Among these, music and theater festivals that will enhance tradition and new artistic expressions, as well as new exhibitions that will bring to light hidden treasures of Naples.
Promoted by City of Naples in collaboration with over 80 organizations, cultural institutions, universities and local entities but also important international centers, Millenary Naples will be a journey through the centuries that will touch the entire city and metropolitan area, transforming Naples into an open-air stage.
For the city it will be a unique opportunity to communicate the complexity of its history:Napoli Millenaria contains the essence of a place capable of holding together culture and identity, but also innovation and contemporaneity. A touching unedited version of "Napule è" by the great Pino Daniele will accompany the celebrations as a theme song, to remind us that “Naples is” many things at the same time: tradition and experimentation, innovation and hospitality, increasingly contemporary and current.
STATEMENTS
The Mayor Gaetano Manfredi said: "The program of the celebrations for the 2500 years of Naples is articulated and widespread. It is born from a direct comparison with the cultural institutions, the social realities and the entrepreneurial forces that have contributed to building an open, participatory and constantly evolving program. We have already activated over 70 collaborations between organizations, institutions, associations and museums, certain that this is a number destined to grow. The celebrations of the 2500 years represent the way to fuel the cultural protagonism of Naples in Italy and in the world, reclaiming the role as European capital that it deserved, as well as the opportunity to return to the Neapolitans and thousands of tourists some significant places, custodians of memory and collective identity".
Teresa Armato, Councillor for Tourism and Productive Activities, added: “There will be over 2500 events, places and artists involved. We want to offer tourists who will come to Naples for the first time and all those who will return a rich and passionate program. Tourism data in 2024 were positive, but we are ambitious and for Naples' birthday we want to do even better. Today we present the first 10 events of this birthday that will last a year, but in the coming weeks the surprises will not end, on the contrary. This is the opportunity to bring out the vitality and dynamism of Naples, confirming itself as a cultural and tourist destination of excellence”.
Laura Valente, artistic director, said: “With Millenary Naples there is no we are happy to celebrate a birthday, albeit a prestigious one. We have the ambition that the projects implemented become a permanent laboratory of institutional and non-institutional collaboration, with particular attention to the talents of this territory. For such a complex and stratified history, always projected on new languages as firmly supported by a tradition that has not lost its shine over time, we could only focus on an open, participatory, dynamic and constantly evolving program, thanks to the joint action of a community that has chosen to collaborate in the creation of a shared and widespread artistic vision, between themes, places and inspirations. Millenary Naples, precisely”.
NAPLES2500 PROGRAM
curated by artistic director Laura Valente
The first events of the celebrations of the 2500th birthday of the city
● SAN CARLO THEATRE FOR THE BIRTHDAY
25 March 2025
NAPLES MILLIONAIRE / San Carlo Theater
Inauguration celebrations Napoli2500
On January 22, 1962, “Naples Millionaire” by Eduardo De Filippo. 80 years ago, exactly in March 1945, Eduardo’s now very famous opera was staged for the first time at the Teatro di San Carlo, interpreted by top-class actors such as Regina Bianchi, Antonio Casagrande, Angela Pagano, among others, in addition to Eduardo himself, who also signed the direction. It will be Eduardo’s voice, which opens the vision of the film, with “Up the curtain” to officially kick off the celebrations for 2500 years of Neapolis. The De Filippo family will be in the room. An evening open to the city. Reservations by Teatro San Carlo.
Teatro di San Carlo | MIC, Municipality of Naples, Rai, De Filippo Foundation for Napoli2500
April 29, 2025
INTERNATIONAL DANCE DAY / Plebiscite Square
The Ballet School of the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples is the first School in Italy, one of the oldest in Europe. Created in 1812, it has always been a "breeding ground" for talents, dancers of the highest professional level capable of entering the most appreciated companies, in Italy and abroad. The protagonist of the day, strongly desired by the Municipality of Naples, will be the Company created by Clotilde Vayer who will occupy the symbolic square together with all the young people who want to sign up for the open lesson. A square that for a few hours becomes, between bars and mats, a moment of aggregation and community through the universal language of dance.
Teatro di San Carlo|MIC and the Municipality of Naples for Napoli2500
October 2025
ASSUNTA SPINA | New production / Teatro di San Carlo
New production of “Assumption of Thorn” by Salvatore Di Giacomo, in the re-adaptation curated by an eclectic artist, beloved by audiences and critics, such as Lina Sastri. A reinterpretation with which the actress and director wants to pay homage to courageous women outside the boxThe preview of the show will be open to the city, thanks to the collaboration with the Municipality of Naples.
Teatro di San Carlo|MIC and the Municipality of Naples for Napoli2500
9, 10 and 12 October 2025
ENRICO CARUSO, International Opera Competition / San Carlo Theater
In 2023, the first national museum dedicated to the greatest tenor of all time was inaugurated at the Palazzo Reale in Naples. On that occasion, the MIC announced a composite project – under the scientific direction of Laura Valente, who also curated the design of the Caruso Museum – which had at its core the creation of an international competition that would bring together the best professionals in the sector, dedicating it to Enrico Caruso. In 2025, thanks to these celebrations, the Teatro di San Carlo, in collaboration with the most important theaters in the world – the Metropolitan in New York, the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, the Aix En Provence Festival, Theaters in Munich and Amsterdam – will give life to the first edition of the “Enrico Caruso” International Opera Competition.
Jury: President Ilias Tzempetonidis, Artistic Area Coordinator and Casting Director of the Teatro di San Carlo; jurors: Michael Heaston, Deputy General Manager, The Metropolitan Opera of New York; Paul Gavazzeni, Coordinator of the Artistic Direction, Teatro alla Scala; Erik Malmquist, Casting Director, Bavarian State Opera, Munich; Sophie de Linth, Director of the Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam; Julien Benhamou, Director of Artistic Administration, Festival d'Aix-en-Provence.
Teatro di San Carlo | MIC, Municipality of Naples, Caruso Museum | Royal Palace for Napoli2500
October 2025
DEDICATED TO ROBERTO DE SIMONE / Memus – San Carlo Theatre
At the Memus Museum of the Teatro San Carlo, an exhibition dedicated to Roberto De Simone, who turns 92 this year. His theatrical and musical works have made history. His production at the San Carlo will be retraced through new references and suggestions with unpublished documents, photographs, stage costumes and historical recordings, thanks also to the collaboration with his family's association.
Teatro di San Carlo|MEMUS, Municipality of Naples, De Simone Cultural Association for Naples2500
And 12 14 December 2025
PARTENOPE | World Premiere, music by Ennio Morricone /
Teatro di San Carlo
In 1996 Ennio Morricone completed a work on a libretto by Guido Barbieri and Sandro Cappelletto: “Partenope” or music for the siren of Naples, dedicated to a city to which Morricone was very attached and to its siren, protagonist of the work through a "double" character as is her nature: a woman in love (a pop voice) and a vestal (soprano). Vanessa Beecroft will create a very special installation for the occasion. The celebrations will be the right opportunity to debut and introduce this work to the public. World premiere.
Teatro di San Carlo|MIC, National Committee for the celebrations of Napoli2500 and Municipality of Naples for Napoli2500
● ROYAL HOTEL OF THE POOR | Palazzo Fuga
8 June 2025
PINOCCHIO BY DAVIDE IODICE |
Teatro Mercadante – UBU Theatre Award 2024
July 2025
ALICE IN THE MIRROR
New creation / RAP and Archaeological Park of Pompeii
Integrated project of art and social inclusion with free participation: the history of Pompeii and the Albergo dei Poveri at the center of a performative restitution path with a show in the Archaeological Park.
Original project by the Municipality of Naples, Pompeii Archaeological Park – Pompeii Children's Museum, MIC, Teatro Stabile di Napoli “Mercadante”, Elementary School of Theatre, Conservatory of the Performing Arts and Real Albergo dei Poveri for Napoli2500
27 from July to August 2 2025
RAP UNDER THE STARS / Royal Hospice for the Poor
Naples and cinema. The history of Naples through films. But also the production of a cartoon about Neapolis directed by the award-winning Alessandro Rak. On the Rap terrace, temporarily set up for the occasion, there will also be performances.
Municipality of Naples, NAPLES 2.5/CARTOON and MAD for Napoli2500
From 18 September 2025 to January 2026
DAILY FUTURE – Installation of the found artefacts /
Real Albergo dei Poveri
Performative installation of the finds found at the RAP belonging to the "inhabitants" of the Albergo dei Poveri, embellished with some historical photos of Mimmo Jodice taken in those places in 1980, which “return home”.
Municipality of Naples for Napoli2500 with the collaboration of Fondazione Mimmo Jodice for Napoli2500
● THE MILE OF MEMORY for Napoli2500
From April 17th to December 28th 2025
LET'S MIX THE CARDS | 150 linear km of archive documents, over two million volumes, performative guided tours, shows and concerts
For Napoli2500, significant documents will be exhibited (some for the first time, including those of the Municipality of Naples), in order to open archives and libraries to new suggestions. Coordination by the superintendent of archives and bibliography of Campania Gabriele Capone. Guided tours in collaboration with the Fai: an immense heritage concentrated in the area that coincides with the ancient route of the Greco-Roman era, accessible in an unconventional way and not only for scholars.
Within this path with the archives, the Academies and the Universities, remember among the many projects the one with Bank of Naples Foundation (DOCUMENT > MONUMENT, art in photography) and the one dedicated to Benedetto Croce.
THE NAPLES OF CROCE | Italian Institute for Historical Studies and other CROCE branches (in) the WORLD | Benedetto Croce Library Foundation | Croce in China, created in collaboration with theEmbassy of Italy in China.
Municipality of Naples, Metropolitan City, Italian Embassy in China, Benedetto Croce Library Foundation, Italian Institute for Historical Studies for Naples2500
IThe Mile of Memory is composed of: Superintendence of Archives and Bibliography of Campania, District Notarial Archive of Naples, Archive of the Neapolitan Province of the Friars Minor Conventual, Historical Diocesan Archive of Naples, Association of Friends of the Archives onlus, Library of Castel Capuano "Alfredo de Marsico", Library and Monumental Complex of the Girolamini, Library Fra Landolfo Caracciolo, University Library of Naples, Conservatory of S. Pietro a Majella, Banco di Napoli Foundation, Benedetto Croce Library Foundation, Castel Capuano Foundation, Foundation of the Neapolitan Bar Association for High Legal Training, Real Monte Manso Foundation of Scala, Italian Institute for Historical Studies, Opera Pia Purgatorio ad Arco, Pio Monte della Misericordia, Museum of Health Arts. The initiative also actively involves the ANAI Italian National Archives Association and the AIB Italian Library Association, Campania section.
Municipality of Naples, Metropolitan City, General Directorate of Archives, Superintendency of Archives and Bibliography of Campania, Miglio della Memoria (18 institutions) and FAI for Napoli2500.
24 October 2025
THE VIRGIN OF THE ROSES | ALESSANDRO SCARLATTI | 300 YEARS AFTER HIS DEATH / Monumental complex of the Girolamini
Oratorio by Alessandro Scarlatti, Director Antonio Florio, Baroque Orchestra Cappella Neapolitana
An original production strongly desired by the Municipality of Naples with the Scarlatti Association and the Miglio della Memoria to pay homage to one of the most important composers of the Baroque era on the day in which we celebrate the 300th anniversary of his death: Alessandro Scarlatti (1660-1725). An international conference curated by the Scarlatti Association will bring the highest international scientific authorities to Naples. The performance of “The Rose Garden”, an oratorio composed in Rome by Alessandro Scarlatti for Prince Francesco Maria Ruspoli, will be performed in the extraordinary setting of the Church of the Girolamini by the Cappella Neapolitana conducted by Antonio Florio, an excellence in this repertoire.
Project of the Municipality of Naples with the Alessandro Scarlatti Association, Miglio della Memoria, Conservatory of Naples San Pietro a Majella, Federico II University, Department of Humanistic Studies, Library and Monumental Complex of the Girolamini, Superintendency of Archives and Bibliography of Campania, Augustissima Compagnia della Disciplina della Santa Croce, Fondazione Banco di Napoli per Napoli 2500.
● NAPLES FRINGE FESTIVAL
From April to 17 4 May 2025
NAPLES FRINGE FEST - I edition
The FRINGE program from April 17th to May 4th 2025
Deadline for applications: February 28th, calendar submission by mid-March.
Municipality of Naples for Napoli2500, partnership with Milano Fringe and Torino Fringe.
● “SAILS” by Francesca Comencini
April 2025
SAILS | DOCUMENTARY
Documentary film on the Vele di Scampia that sees the Municipality of Naples collaborating with Cattleya and Sky. Debut at the Triennale di Milano, before continuing its journey towards the Architecture Biennale directed by Carlo Ratti.
Milan Triennale and Architecture Biennale, Venice Biennale, Cattleya and Sky, Municipality of Naples for Napoli2500
● MUSEUMS for NAPLES2500
March – December 2025
From the Mann to the Royal Palace to Capodimonte: a series of “actions” that will pay homage to this anniversary.
ROYAL PALACE
From 3 March 2025
KING OF LIGHT FOR A TALE OF CENTURIES OF HISTORY
Guided tours and nightly artistic illumination of the facade of the Royal Palace on Piazza Plebiscito by the Kings.
Royal Palace, MIC, State Property for Naples2500.
From the 19 March
PINO DANIELE AND NAPLES: “SPIRITUAL” EXHIBITION AND EXCLUSIVE UNRELEASED THEME SONG FOR THE CELEBRATIONS DEDICATED TO THE 2500 YEARS
Municipality of Naples, Metropolitan City of Naples, MIC, Royal Palace and Campania Region for Napoli2500, Pino Daniele Foundation, Sony Music Entertainment Italy
MANN
End of May / beginning of June 2025
OPENING OF NEW SECTIONS AT MANN
Thanks to the General Directorate of the Museums, led by Massimo Osanna, the rearrangement of the rooms dedicated to the Villa of the Papyri and the new arrangement of the rooms of Pompeii domestic furnishings (Rooms 90-95) will be dedicated to the birthday.
General Directorate of Museums | MIC | National Archaeological Museum dedicated to Naples 2500
CAPODIMONTE MUSEUM
November 2025
THE YEAR OF PORCELAIN
Capodimonte is famous throughout the world for its porcelain. In 2025 a new section of Porcelain will be inaugurated, for the first time in the history of the site, enhanced with 14 rooms.
Capodimonte Museum|MIC for Napoli2500
● STATE ARCHIVES
From May 2025 to January 2026
I'LL TELL YOU ABOUT NAPLES | Documents and stories
An archival journey but also of “memory formation”, set up in the Chiostro del Platano and curated by the director Candida Carrino. On display are the original documents that tell the story of the city. Focus on the relationship and cultural exchanges with foreign countries in collaboration with foreign cultural institutes in Italy.
Municipality of Naples, MIC, General Directorate of Archives, State Archives of Naples, Cervantes Institute, Institut français Napoli Grenoble, Goethe Institute, Regional School Office for Naples2500
● AT THE LIGHTHOUSE /Port of Naples
From June 21st to July 5th
ROOTS AND MIGRATIONS
From port to port, depart, cross, return.
Walks and original performances at the Naples Lighthouse. A journey through time and the future is anticipated, among villanelles, Moorish folk songs and Mediterranean voices curated by Eugenio Bennato. The Naples lighthouse, like the one in Genoa, represented for thousands and thousands of Italians the last light before seeing that of the Ellis Island lighthouse and other places of migration. Integrated project of the Municipality of Naples in collaboration with the National Museum of Italian Emigration, Lanterna di Genova, A route that will also touch Ellis Island among its stops, the landing place of many of our compatriots who have given their contribution to the development of the USA and beyond. Special screenings on Naples and its emigration. On July 21, 2025, Il civico giusto will be placed on the history of the Henry Gibbins ship that on July 21, 1944 brought to safety in the USA almost a thousand Jewish refugees who had escaped the extermination camps. Narrator Enzo Decaro, Text by Maria Grazia Lancellotti.
June 21 (Music Day)
APP SIREN: NAPLES – PARIS – BUENOS AIRES – NEW YORK
4 cities: Naples, Paris, Buenos Aires and New York become an open-air jukebox through an APP created for the occasion, which will guide us through the streets of the four capitals to the notes of the most noble and popular repertoire sung by the great interpreters of Neapolitan song.
The Sirena App – free, working on iOS and Android – allows you to listen to historical recordings of songs in Naples in the places where its poets, musicians and performers were born, lived, performed, created (between the end of the nineteenth century and the early 60s). Through a work of reconstruction of addresses by the artist Mauro Gioia – a Neapolitan naturalized French – the city will be traversable in several routes dotted with songs, connected to them in various ways, transforming it into an open-air jukebox. The Neapolitan routes will include the newborn Casa Museo Murolo. Meetings and connections to and from Little Italy in New York.
Municipality of Naples, ICBSA (Central Institute for Sound and Audiovisual Heritage), MIC – Contemporary Creativity, Phono Museum of Paris, SOFOS (Italian Society for Historical Phonoreproduction Studies), Gioia Fund, Palacio Libertad de Buenos Aires Cultural Center, San Pietro a Majella Conservatory of Naples for Napoli2500.
Integrated project and international exhibition with the Navy, Lighthouses of Italy, National Museum of Italian Emigration and Lanterna of Genoa and with the collaboration of the Central Tyrrhenian Sea Port System Authority
● CONCLUSIVE REVIEW HAPPY BIRTHDAY NEAPOLIS
From December 21 to January 6
Two weeks to celebrate the 2500 years of our city.
Municipality of Naples for Naples2500
This programming could never have been realized without the collaboration of all the departments of the Municipality of Naples, each involved for their competences and reference offices. To which must be added the convinced availability of all the public and private institutions in addition to the individual subjects involved, who have accepted the challenge of a shared and identity vision - built over months of discussions - open to welcome and create networks.
Beyond 2025.
Article published on 28 February 2025 - 16:45
It is interesting to see how Naples celebrates its 2500 years of history. But I wonder if all these events will be accessible to everyone and not just a few privileged. Culture must be shared and not elitist.