Wiki Loves Monuments photo contest arrives in Catania, focusing on churches

Last Updated: September 2, 2023

Wiki Loves Monuments, the world’s largest photographic competition, is coming to Sicily. The aim is to contribute to the promotion of Italy’s artistic heritage through digitalization. The competition is organized by Wikimedia, involving both professional and amateur photographers to document Italian monuments on Wikimedia Commons, Wikipedia, and sister projects. This year, the focus will be on religious buildings, with the photos enriching the online encyclopedia and promoting Italian culture worldwide. The competition is sponsored by the Dicastery for Culture and Education of the Roman Curia and the Union of Italian Jewish Communities. To kick off the event, volunteers from Wikimedia projects are organizing Wiki Takes Catania in Sicily, where they will document the city’s beauty on the Wikimedia and OpenStreetMap platforms. The competition also features a writing marathon on Wikipedia dedicated to Catania. A new app, Wiki Loves Monuments Italia, developed in collaboration with Wikimedia Italia, will be available this year. It allows users to search for participating monuments, upload their photos, and filter monuments based on type and documentation level. Since its first edition, Wiki Loves Monuments has documented millions of monuments worldwide, with over 2.7 million images uploaded by more than 100,000 participants. In Italy alone, around 8,750 participants have uploaded over 180,000 photographs since 2012. The competition runs from September 1 to 30, with the winners announced in November and their photos entered into the international competition in 2023.