As part of the 42nd European Heritage Days, the EUNIC network of European national cultural institutes is
organizing the fourth European Heritage Days of Turkey on September 20 and 21, 2025
In 2024, over 3,000 people took part in Ankara! This year, with the introduction of a new registration system and the
desire to extend the event to Istanbul and Izmir, we're expecting even more of you. Together with our partners,
we're working hard to prepare an even richer program.
Setting out from Ankara in 2022 under the motto “You'll love Ankara”, the event celebrates the capital's rich
historical, architectural and artistic heritage with a range of free and original activities, starting with guided tours of
European embassies usually closed to the public. Over two days, embassies, museums, foundations, universities and
associations open their doors to you in an exceptional and/or original way to (re)discover Ankara's history with
guided tours, exhibitions, concerts and city walks. In 2025, the aim is to extend the event to Istanbul and Izmir.
What are the European Heritage Days?
European Heritage Days
This event, launched in 1985 by the Council of Europe and joined in 1999 by the European Union, is organized in over
50 member countries of the European Cultural Convention, to which Turkey has been a party since 1954
Organized every year over a weekend in September, the days open up remarkable heritage sites and monuments to
the general public. They are an opportunity to learn about a shared cultural heritage, and to mobilize for the
preservation and enhancement of this legacy for present and future generations.
At the initiative of Ankara's EUNIC cluster, the first edition of the European Days took place in Ankara in September
2022, with the doors of four European embassies (Belgium, France, Poland and Switzerland) exceptionally open to
the public.
This fourth edition brings together, in addition to a larger number of European embassies, numerous Turkish
partners, museums, foundations, universities and associations that belong to the city's historical, architectural and
artistic heritage and/or play a major role in its preservation and transmission to the population.
EUNIC
A network of European national cultural institutes worldwide, EUNIC has 39 members from the European Union and
associated countries, and is present through 139 clusters in 107 countries worldwide.
In Turkey, EUNIC has two clusters, in Ankara and Istanbul, created in 2012
Chaired for several years by the French Institute of Turkey and now by the Polish Embassy in Turkey, the EUNIC
cluster in Ankara, which has around twenty full and associate members (Austria, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Greece,
Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland,
United Kingdom, European Union), aims to strengthen cultural links between Turkey and Europe.
To this end, EUNIC initiates original cultural events such as the Sound of Europe contemporary music festival, whose
fourth edition will take place this year in Izmir on July 4 and in Ankara and Istanbul on July 5 and 6, 2025, or the
European Heritage Days in Ankara.
