The "French Capital of Culture" label was awarded for the first time this year.

The lucky winner is the city of Villeurbanne, not far from Lyon, which was chosen by the jury and will therefore benefit from funding of one million euros to encourage "its urban cultural project".

This is a first for this "French Capital of Culture" award and it was presented in Villeurbanne, in the Lyon metropolitan area.

The city indeed received Tuesday this label awarded for the first time, in order to encourage "its urban cultural project", announced the Ministry of Culture.

Villeurbanne will therefore benefit from this label throughout 2022, which is accompanied by funding of one million euros, provided equally by the Ministry of Culture and the Caisse des Dépôts.

This label is supposed to stimulate the public and artistic order of the municipality.

"Villeurbanne, rich in its industrial history, a young and growing city, has chosen youth as the strength and target of its urban cultural project", noted the jury, welcoming that this city of 150,000 inhabitants "intends to reconnect with its tradition popular education and innovate in its artistic and cultural education actions ". 

An original and ambitious cultural policy

Villeurbanne is best known for its National Popular Theater (TNP), a national drama center created in 1920 in the old building of the People's House in the heart of the historic district of Gratte-Ciel, a modernist utopia of the 1930s. shadow of its neighbor Lyonnaise, the city displays an original and ambitious cultural policy, with in particular the street festival of the "Guests of Villeurbanne".

This city is home to a National Music School, an Institute of Contemporary Art and a Book, Image and Sound House.

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Eight other cities or agglomerations were in the running: Angoulême, Brest, Laval, Le Mans, Metz, Saint-Paul de La Réunion, Sète and the community of municipalities of Val Briard in Seine-et-Marne.

Every two years, the “French Capital of Culture” label will distinguish a cultural project from a municipality or group of municipalities with 20,000 to 200,000 inhabitants, in line with the European Capitals of Culture.