Guimarães Crowned European Green Capital 2026
Guimarães Crowned European Green Capital 2026: The Role of ICEHO and the Environmental History Community
Many ICEHO members will recall the connection between our organisation and Guimarães, the city in northern Portugal that hosted our 2014 Second World Congress of Environmental History. It is therefore a great pleasure to announce that Guimarães has won the prestigious award of European Green Capital (EGC) for 2026!
Guimarães, with some 150.000 inhabitants, has long striven for excellence. It was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2001, European Capital of Culture in 2012, and European City of Sports in 2013. However, becoming ‘’green’’ was more difficult to accomplish because it meant transforming the city and its citizens into new ways of thinking and acting. It is this transformation that has been the journey to EGC and that met with success on 27 November 2024.
Mayor Domingos Bragança and Jane Carruthers with the trophy of European Green Capital.
ICEHO can claim a part in the victory because holding our 2014 World Congress in Guimarães was important in the process. In December 2013, when Verena Winiwarter and I first met newly elected Mayor Domingos Bragança he told us that hosting our Congress – with some 700 delegates from all parts of the world – would be a vital keystone to improving the environmental orientation of the city. The Mayor graciously opened the Congress, hosted a reception, and allowed us the use of the city’s facilities.
The idea of Guimarães entering the EGC competition was formally publicized at the World Congress in a well-attended Round Table entitled “A green city: dream or necessity?” chaired by Mauro Agnoletti. It included many eminent speakers and the complex criteria that were vital for the application were explored. The need for an alliance with citizens and strategic governance and communication plans were emphasised. As an early blueprint for the EGC process, this Round Table was a solid foundation.*
After the Congress, members of the city council, citizens, and regional universities coalesced into specialised teams to take the process forward. The Mayor constituted an External Scientific Advisory Committee, chaired by our Congress keynote speaker Mohan Munasinghe. ICEHO was represented on this committee initially by Verena Winiwarter, Mauro Agnoletti, and me. I have continued working on this committee and come to know the city well and made many friends.
In a recent interview, Mayor Bragança reflected on his ten years in office as they come to an end in October. “It is a feeling of tranquillity”, he replied; “I tried, and I think I managed, to mobilize the people of Guimarães in big projects and big causes.” Of those big causes, the largest has been the European Green Capital – one in which ICEHO is honoured to have played a part.
* Agnoletti, M., R. Baptista, R. Henriques, P. Nogueira, L. M. Costa Pinto, P. J. Ramísio, A. Santoro, J. C. Teixeira, and E. Vaz. “A Green City: Impossible Dream or Necessity?” In Environmental History in the Making, vol. II, Acting, edited by C. J. De Melo, E. Vaz, and L. M. Pinto, pp. 335–76. Springer, 2017.