European Heritage Days (EHD)

A weekend to rediscover Rome's heritage

The European Heritage Days (EHD) are Europe's most widely attended cultural event. Launched by the Council of Europe and the European Commission, they involve fifty countries across the continent every year. In Italy, coordination is handled by the Ministry of Culture — Directorate General for Museums, based in Rome at the San Michele a Ripa Grande Monumental Complex in the Trastevere district. In the Municipality of Rome, capital of the Metropolitan City of Rome and the Lazio region, the event takes on a unique dimension: the concentration of state museums, archives, libraries, superintendencies, and research institutes is unparalleled in Europe.

How the EHD work

For two days, typically the last weekend of September, state cultural sites join forces with civic museums, foundations, private galleries, associations, and municipalities to build a calendar that usually exceeds a thousand events nationwide. The formula is well-established and remains free or nearly so:

• Extraordinary openings of sites usually closed to the public or accessible only by reservation;
• Guided tours led by officials, archaeologists, art historians, architects, and restorers from the Ministry;
• Saturday evening openings at state museums and archaeological parks with a symbolic 1-euro ticket, excluding standard legal exemptions;
• Lectures, educational workshops, and family activities, often designed for non-specialist audiences;
• Thematic itineraries connecting multiple sites within the same city.

Rome, a city-wide museum for two days

In Rome, the EHD are an opportunity to enter places rarely visited: museum storage areas, restoration labs, historical archive reading rooms, excavation sites, and institutional palaces. The San Michele Monumental Complex, an imposing 18th-century building overlooking the Tiber that long served as a hospice, juvenile prison, and factory, is opened to the public on both days with extended hours on Saturday. It is one of the most anticipated opportunities, as the building normally houses ministerial offices and is inaccessible throughout the year.

Alongside San Michele, the city's major autonomous institutes and state museums traditionally participate, together with the civic museums of the Rome Capital system, public libraries, and state archives. The Roman program then extends to the entire metropolitan area and the other provinces of Lazio — Frosinone, Latina, Rieti, and Viterbo — where superintendencies and regional directorates offer visits to villas, archaeological areas, castles, and smaller historic centers.

The 2026 theme: heritage at risk

Each year, the Council of Europe designates a shared theme. For 2026, the chosen theme is Heritage at Risk: Revive, Resist, Reimagine, adapted in Italy as «Protecting heritage. Renew, resist, reimagine». This guiding thread invites reflection on the threats to European cultural heritage — climate change, depopulation of villages, conflicts, digital transformation, loss of traditional knowledge — and how communities can intervene to safeguard it. In 2025, the theme was dedicated to architecture as the art of building.

A free event for everyone

Almost all initiatives are free: you only pay, where applicable, the standard museum admission or the symbolic 1-euro ticket for the Saturday evening opening. However, many guided tours have limited capacity and require reservations, which usually open a few days in advance. It is advisable to consult the program published on the Ministry of Culture's website, where events can be filtered by region and city, and to check the pages of individual Roman institutions.

Not to be confused with the European Archaeology Days

The September EHD are a distinct event from the European Archaeology Days, which take place in June and are specifically dedicated to archaeological fieldwork. Both are part of the European calendar for heritage promotion, but they have different periods, themes, and organizations.