European Capital of Culture is a title conferred by the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union to one or two European cities, which for one year have the possibility of showing their cultural development and life. Some European cities have taken advantage of this designation to completely transform their cultural structures and become recognized at the European and international level. When a city is named European Capital of Culture, all kinds of artistic manifestations develop there.

It is believed that the city holding the title of cultural capital of Europe can significantly maximize its social and economic benefits, especially when events are included as part of the long-term development strategy of the city and its surrounding region.[1]​.

In February 2021, there had already been 61 designated cities, corresponding to 33 countries, some of which were not members of the European Union. Only Luxembourg City has repeated its capital status (in 1995 and 2007). By country, five capitals have been designated in Belgium, Spain, France and Italy, and four in Germany, Greece, the Netherlands and Portugal. Eighteen of the designated cultural capitals are also national capitals; Of the 27 capitals of the EU, Bratislava, Bucharest, Budapest, Ljubljana, Nicosia, Rome, Sofia, Vienna and Zagreb have not been.

Conceived as a method to bring European cities together, the European City of Culture project was launched on June 13, 1985 in the Council of Ministers under the initiative of Melina Mercouri. Since then, the initiative has been better received by European citizens and has had a growing cultural and socioeconomic impact thanks to the large number of visitors it attracts.

In 1990 the ministers of culture launched the European Cultural Month"), which only existed until 2001. This event was similar to that of City of Culture, although it lasted less time than the previous one, in addition to being aimed mainly at cities in non-EU member countries.

In 1991, the organizers of the different European cities of culture created a network that would allow the exchange and dissemination of information also for the organizers of future events. At the end of 2004, this network carried out a study on the impact of European cities of culture since their creation.

In 1999 the European City of Culture was renamed the European Capital of Culture and is now funded by the Culture 2007 programme, as it was previously by Culture 2000). On May 25 of that same year, the European Parliament made the decision to integrate the event into the community framework and introduced a new selection procedure for capitals in the period 2005/2019. This decision was made due to the fierce competition of community members to obtain recognition, now a rotating system is established, so each member country will have the opportunity to host the European Capital of Culture at least once.