A civic group in Benevento is calling on the city to reopen what it describes as the "season of competitions" for urban and architectural projects, and to rethink Benevento as a city set within a large public park.
The proposal comes from Civico22 and was reported by NTR24 on 5 October 2026. It is a political and architectural position put forward by the group, not an announced municipal competition or an adopted public project.
A look back to 2000–2006
According to Civico22, about twenty years have passed since Benevento held a series of public design competitions between 2000 and 2006.
Those earlier competitions concerned, among other areas, the Arco del Sacramento, the Duomo area, the Arch of Trajan, the Bagni, calata Olivella and piazza Santa Maria.
Civico22 argues that only the Arena dell'Arco del Sacramento was partially completed, while the other projects produced limited or no visible results. That assessment reflects the group's account as reported by NTR24 and has not been independently verified against municipal records.
What Civico22 proposes
Civico22 calls for new competitions that are shared with residents, focused on clearly defined objectives and properly prepared.
A central part of the vision is greenery: gardens, parks, urban woods and forests. The group proposes thinking of Benevento as a city contained within an extensive urban park, rather than treating green space as separate or secondary to building projects.
What is not yet known
No municipal response, official competition timetable or funding information was reported. The proposal also does not specify which sites any future competitions would cover.
For now, the invitation remains a proposal for debate: to return to open competitions as a method for shaping public space in Benevento, with landscape and shared public use at the center.
