Davoli and Kolomyia libraries twinned: a success for international cultural cooperation

Twinning between the “Vincenziana” Public Library in Davoli (CZ), Italy, and the Kolomyia City Public Library in Ukraine.

This important milestone was made possible thanks to the cooperation of the KOLOS association, Maria Antonietta Corapi, Aldo Marcellino, director of the Biblioteca Vincenziana in Davoli, and Nataliia Olihradska, director of the Kolomyia library (the municipal institution “Kolomyia City Public Library”).

This new achievement confirms the value of international cultural cooperation and strengthens the bonds of friendship and collaboration between the two libraries, in the spirit of culture, dialogue and the exchange of experience.

Reaching this historic milestone — one of the first official agreements between library institutions in Italy and Ukraine — is an outstanding diplomatic, cultural and human success for our whole community and for the development of the Italy–Ukraine European Dialogue platform. Thanks to the active leadership of Maryna Feokhari and the steadfast support of the KOLOS APS association, the leading institutions of Calabria were mobilised and brought together in exemplary fashion.

Performances by the Ukrainian choirs “Berehynya” and “Berehynya Junior” alongside traditional Calabrian folk music, together with the unveiling of a commemorative plaque on Viale J.F. Kennedy, showed vividly that libraries and culture are a powerful infrastructure of memory and a strong instrument of brotherhood between peoples.

This tireless work shows how citizen diplomacy puts the principles of decentralised cooperation into practice on the ground. This way of working is a cornerstone of our Action Plan and an example worth extending to other regions of Italy.

The Congress extends special thanks to

• ✓Prof. Aldo Marcellino, director of the Biblioteca Vincenziana in Davoli, for his unwavering belief in this journey of shared memory, for presenting the twinning project and for setting out its cultural and solidarity goals;
• ✓Giuseppe Papaleo, Mayor of Davoli, and the entire municipal administration, for their official patronage and constant institutional support;
• ✓The Regional Council of Calabria (Consiglio Regionale della Calabria) and the Province of Catanzaro (Provincia di Catanzaro), for their valuable support and attention to the project;
• ✓Prof. Lucia Montesanti of the Magna Graecia University of Catanzaro, for her substantial academic talk on “Culture as a Tool for Uniting Peoples”;
• ✓Dr Maria Antonietta Corapi, for the professionalism with which she supported, presented and moderated this important meeting;
• ✓The folk ensemble “I strinari di Calabria” (Diego Strinari Tarantelle), who, together with the Ukrainian choirs “Berehynya” and “Berehynya Junior”, brought the musical traditions of the two countries together in a single friendly embrace.

The commemorative plaque unveiled in Davoli on Viale J. F. Kennedy will forever remain a symbol of the unbreakable bond between Calabria and Ukraine, affirming that culture knows no borders and can build a lasting peace.

4 photos

4 photos

×