The Slovak city fast-tracked to cultural stardom
Trenčín was a surprise choice for 2026 European Capital of Culture — and it is seizing the moment
The Slovak city of Trenčín has neither a dedicated theatre building nor a concert hall. Its only sizeable auditorium is in a reinforced concrete building known as the House of the Army, managed by Slovakia’s defence ministry. It was erected on land reclaimed by the former communist authorities after they demolished part of Trenčín’s old town in the 1970s.
Yet this lack of cultural infrastructure was one of the main reasons why Trenčín was chosen to represent Slovakia as European Capital of Culture in 2026.
The award “would be nothing for a city like Paris, but it means absolutely everything for us,” says deputy mayor Patrik Žák. “We’ve really been a military city, so we know that winning such a culture prize is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to bring change.”
The initiative to designate a European Capital of Culture each year was launched four decades ago by Melina Mercouri, then Greece’s culture minister, with backing from her French counterpart, Jack Lang. The title initially went to established cultural centres: Athens was the first winner in 1985, followed by Florence, Amsterdam, West Berlin and Paris.
From 2000, the model shifted. The award began to be shared among several cities, and the emphasis moved towards places where a year-long cultural programme could be paired with infrastructure investment to also deliver economic progress and attract tourism. Liverpool, a European Capital of Culture in 2008, is often cited as the benchmark for such transformation. It welcomed almost 10mn additional tourists during its cultural year, equivalent to £754mn in extra visitor spending, according to a study commissioned by the Liverpool city council. (However since Brexit, UK cities have no longer been able to compete for this EU award).
For Trenčín, the financial leverage has already been significant. While the award itself comes with €1.5mn in EU funding, the city has assembled a broader budget of €60mn for its arts programme and related urban investments, including €40mn in additional EU funds allocated through Slovakia’s national envelope. The city’s own contribution amounts to €5.5mn.
Some Slovak artists also see Trenčín’s cultural year as a source of optimism at a time when Prime Minister Robert Fico’s eurosceptic government has tightened control over cultural institutions, replaced management and argued that public funding should not support art that challenges traditional values. As part of these changes, Fico’s government withdrew funding and terminated staff contracts at Kunsthalle Bratislava, a significant contemporary art space, folding its activities into the Slovak National Gallery.
“The situation for artists in Slovakia now feels really sad, so it’s great to see many people who want to discover art and see our installations while exploring Trenčín,” says artist Veronika Šmírová. “This feels like light in the darkness.”
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Long before the opening ceremony in February, substantial infrastructure work got under way. The main pedestrian zone has been repaved, the railway station is being rebuilt and the medieval castle overlooking Trenčín is undergoing restoration, in part to create gallery space for contemporary art. However, the largest single investment — to convert a disused railway bridge into a “fiesta bridge” with bars and restaurants — is running about 18 months behind schedule.
There are also some outdoor exhibits, which add colour to otherwise drab urban spaces. “Gentle Underpass” — an installation by Büro Milk and Subdigital Studio, two Slovak artist collectives — has illuminated an underground passage with soft purple light and covered its ceiling with mesh that also dampens the noise of traffic above.
At the bus station, passengers can watch a video installation by Swiss artist Pipilotti Rist, showing a woman pressing her face against the screen as if trying to break through and join those waiting for transport.
Some international artists have drawn on Trenčín’s history and industrial past. Portuguese artist Carla Rebelo’s “Barbora’s Thread” installation incorporates the castle’s wooden beams with natural fibres, spools and fragments of the wooden floor that she recovered from the former Merina textiles factory, once central to the local economy before it declined in the face of cheaper global competition.
In the city centre, a shipping container is housing a sustainable fashion hub. Its window displays dresses made from recycled material by Slovak designer Vanda Hauptvogelová, who has also run one of the workshops inside, where visitors learn how to weave or print shirts.
“The textile factories closed, but that doesn’t mean the culture of fashion needed to disappear,” says Zuzana Bobikova, chief executive of the Slovak Fashion Council. “We still have the knowledge of those who worked in factories, as well as a new community of younger people who are enthusiastic about repairing, recycling, innovating, but also learning traditional skills like crochet.”
For visitors like René Seifert, who travelled from neighbouring Austria, “it feels amazing to enjoy so much culture and different activities for free.” He added: “In Vienna, you have to pay for everything, or when a museum has an open day, you will first be standing in a very long queue.”
With a population of about 55,000, Trenčín is among the smaller recipients of the title. This year’s other European Capital of Culture is Oulu, in Finland, which has roughly four times as many residents.
Even so, Trenčín has gathered 460 local volunteers, 300 of whom underwent training to help stage events. On a recent weekend, they were joined by 26 Danish pensioners from Aarhus, a European Capital of Culture in 2017. Gert Aagesen, 76, who wears a bright orange jacket bearing Aarhus’s 2017 logo, says: “Yes, we got a lot more culture, but with it also a culture of volunteering that we have since tried to share with Europe’s other cities of culture.”
