"Rocca di Papa - City of Art" Plein Air Painting Competition

A Castelli Romani village that becomes a canvas

The "Rocca di Papa - City of Art" Plein Air Painting Competition is one of the most popular artistic events in the Castelli Romani area. Every year, on a Sunday in June, the Municipality of Rocca di Papa (Metropolitan City of Rome Capital, Lazio) opens its historic center to painters: anyone can freely choose a corner of the town and paint it from life, right in front of passersby. The result is a day where art is not confined to an exhibition hall, but is born under the porticoes, on the stairways, and at the scenic overlooks of the village.

How the competition works

The formula is the classic one for plein air painting: in the morning, artists arrive at the meeting point in Piazza della Repubblica, have their canvases stamped, and then disperse throughout the town. The subject is free, provided it falls within the municipal territory and addresses the edition's theme; the technique is also free—oil, acrylic, watercolor, tempera, pastel, or mixed media. In the late afternoon, the works are returned to the jury and set up for evaluation, with the awards ceremony taking place in the evening.

• Free registration, open to Italian and international artists
• Canvas stamping in the morning, in the square
• Return of the works in the late afternoon
• Jury of art experts plus a popular jury that votes for their favorite painting
• Four cash prizes, from the first-place winner to the Popular Jury Prize

The theme: life in the village, glimpses, and panoramas

The common thread of the event is the town itself: "Historic center, life in the village, glimpses, and panoramas." Rocca di Papa, perched on the northern slope of the Alban Hills at an altitude of over 700 meters, offers painters plenty of material: the medieval Bavarian quarter with its arches and steep stairs, the narrow alleys that suddenly open onto the Roman countryside, and the view of Lake Albano—and on clear days, the sea. The theme also invites artists to capture the human dimension of the village—the shops, the café tables, and the people watching the painting process.

A widespread festival, not just a competition

The plein air event is not an isolated appointment: for years, it has intertwined with other spring traditions in Rocca di Papa, starting with the Infiorata (flower festival) and the famous colored sawdust paintings laid out along the streets of the center. Visitors arriving in town will find, on the same day, painters at work, sawdust carpets, food stalls, a craft market, and musical entertainment. It is a formula that has worked: recent editions have seen over thirty painters, arriving not only from the Castelli Romani and the rest of Lazio, but also from Tuscany and Campania.

Why it's worth the trip

For the visitor, the interest is twofold. On one hand, there is the rare pleasure of seeing a painting come to life step by step, with the ability to talk to the person painting it; on the other, there is the discovery of a village that, less than an hour from Rome, preserves an intact medieval urban layout and one of the widest panoramas in the Alban Hills area. The municipal administration, which organizes the event under the patronage of the Lazio Region, explicitly considers it a tool for revitalizing the historic center: bringing residents and tourists back into the ancient streets through art.

A consolidated event

Born in the late 2010s, the event has surpassed nine editions and has established itself as one of the cultural highlights of the local calendar. The format remains deliberately simple and popular: no tickets, no prior selection, just the rule of painting from life, in a single day, whatever the town has to offer.