Festival of Doubt

The Festival of Doubt in Ortona

In the heart of the Abruzzo summer, Ortona — a coastal city in the province of Chieti overlooking the Adriatic — hosts the Festival of Doubt, one of the most original cultural events in the region. The concept is as simple as it is powerful: to make doubt not a limitation, but a method. Not certainty, but the question as the starting point for all true knowledge.

Saint Thomas the Apostle, the saint of doubt

It is no coincidence that the festival was born in Ortona. The city houses the relics of Saint Thomas the Apostle in its Basilica-Cathedral, the apostle who did not believe in the resurrection until he touched it with his own hands — the universal symbol of disbelief becoming inquiry. The festival draws its inspiration from this figure: doubt as a tool for investigation, open-mindedness, and intellectual honesty, which is more necessary than ever in an age of easy answers and shouted truths.

Two evenings of dialogue

The festival takes place over two evenings, usually in mid-July, in the evocative Piazza del Teatro Francesco Paolo Tosti, in the historic center of Ortona. Each evening addresses a pressing current issue through a confrontation between prominent guests: writers, philosophers, scientists, historians, legal experts, and theologians engage in dialogue before the public, moderated by journalists and authors. Past editions have discussed faith and science, artificial intelligence, climate change, and the prison crisis, always with the interdisciplinary approach that is the hallmark of the event.

Organization and territory

The Festival of Doubt is conceived by Gaetano Basti and promoted by Edizioni Menabò-D'Abruzzo together with the Romano Canosa Association for Historical Studies, with the patronage of the Municipality of Ortona and the Regional Council of Abruzzo. The event is part of the rich program of the Ortona Summer, which enlivens the city center and the surrounding districts with dozens of events from July to September. Admission to the evenings is free, and the format of public outdoor dialogue makes it a favorite appointment for both residents and tourists flocking to the Trabocchi Coast.