Officials from the Royal Commission for AlUla (RCU) and the Italian city of Matera have signed a twinning agreement aimed at safeguarding and promoting their cultural heritage.
Matera, best known for its Sassi-inhabited caves, celebrated its 30th anniversary as a World Heritage Site this year, while AlUla, home to Hegra, Saudi Arabia’s first UNESCO World Heritage Site, boasts a 2,000-year legacy shaped by the Nabataean Kingdom.
Under the new agreement, AlUla and Matera will collaborate through cultural exchanges, joint initiatives and knowledge sharing in areas such as cultural preservation, education, economy and social development.
Waleed Al-Dayel, Chief Strategy and Digital Officer at RCU, said: “The agreement with Matera supports our efforts to create a global destination in ways that benefit AlUla’s community, economy and environment, offering opportunities for residents of both cities to learn about different cultures, build personal connections, and explore shared challenges and opportunities.
“The partnership will reinvent how destinations connect the culturally curious to history and heritage, as we continue to share Saudi Arabia’s culture with the world and understand the significance of the Arabian Peninsula in human history,” he added.
Tiziana D’Oppido, Councilor for Culture, Tourism and Events and official of the Municipality of Matera, declared: “The exact date of the 30th anniversary since Matera became a UNESCO World Heritage Site was the best day to highlight the importance twinning agreement between the Royal Commission for AlUla and the Municipality of Matera.
“The calendar of activities that we will carry out in synergy, with a great spirit of mutual collaboration and in compliance with the sustainability objectives of the two destinations in the conservation of their respective UNESCO sites, is ambitious, operational and rich: culture as a driving resource of the economy, of tourism, cinema, events, design, arts, archaeology, architecture, accessibility, the Sassi as a successful urban ecosystem and much more for two geographically distant realities but which have many elements in common.
“Matera, European Capital of Culture 2019, is a case study for the ability to recover the value of a city that the world has long neglected, and which risked being abandoned and forgotten by history, just like AlUla, becoming instead, May it be a land of redemption and virtuous examples to follow.”
The twinning program is part of a broader agreement between AlUla and Italy. Other initiatives have included a five-day cultural gathering in the Saudi village at Villa Borghese in Rome in September and a partnership with the Cortona on the Move photography exhibition at the AlUla Arts Festival in 2022.
Meanwhile, young Saudis are receiving training in heritage conservation at the La Venaria Reale Conservation and Restoration Centre, near Turin.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Saudi Arabia also organized a trip to the tourist and archaeological site of AlUla for the ambassadors present in the Kingdom. This was reported by the Saudi press agency “SPA”.
The trip included envoys from various foreign countries and their families visiting archaeological sites in the region.
They were accompanied on the visit by the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for Protocol Affairs, Abdul Majeed Al-Samari.
During the visit, the foreign ambassadors visited the Al-Hijr area, which is the first historical site in the Kingdom to be included in the UNESCO World Heritage List, where they listened to an introductory explanation about the Qasr Al-Bint and the Al-Farid Palace. collections.
The visit also included the Maraya Theater, which hosted concerts by legendary musicians including Alicia Keys, John Legend and Seal, as well as regional stars such as Mohamed Abdo and Assala Nasri.
