From 24 May to 1 June 2025, the thirteenth edition of Open House Roma will invite the public to discover over 220 remarkable sites across the Italian capital. Organised by the Open City Roma Cultural Association, this major free festival offers nine days of building visits, urban walks, and events that tell the story of a city that renews itself without losing its spirit.

“The programme of this edition will be an exciting journey of discovery of a city that never truly reveals itself completely — declares Laura Calderoni, director of Open House Roma — just as journalist Silvio Negro described it in his unusual guide from the 1960s, “Rome, a lifetime is not enough.” The city makes us relentless explorers of its hidden wonders within its millennia of layers. This year, we will open new and ancient doors, tell the story of ongoing transformations, and give space to inclusion, innovation, and memory. An invitation for each of us to write our own urban logbook.”

This year, the festival reflects on the theme of Future Heritage as part of the continent-wide programme of Open House Europe 2025 and encourages reflection on how the city’s past, present, and future intersect. “The theme is an invitation to discover very diverse initiatives that offer opportunities for reflection on how the city can face transformations capable of generating value for the future,” emphasises Gaia Maria Lombardo, Programme Manager of Open House Roma.

Alongside the main theme of this edition, there are four other themes – Social Housing, Inclusive City, The Jubilee and the City, and Heroic Engineering – to demonstrate how architecture and engineering are intertwined daily with the social life of Rome.

The 2025 edition offers a unified narrative of the city that is evolving, opening up symbolic and usually inaccessible places alongside everyday spaces that are now becoming laboratories of change. Among these, the exceptional opening in collaboration with ACEA of the “Chiocciola” at Villa Medici stands out — an extraordinary spiral staircase hidden in the heart of the renowned Renaissance villa — as well as the so-called Temple of Minerva Medica, a monumental late-antique structure from the 4th century, which can be visited thanks to the collaboration with Rome’s Special Superintendence.

Alongside the historic heritage, Open House Rome highlights the urban transformation projects, such as the Porto Fluviale REC House, a commendable example of participatory and inclusive regeneration, and the new public library in the former ATAC depot on Via della Lega Lombarda, which restores an industrial building to the city, transforming it into a cultural hub and community space.

The programme continues with places that showcase the most visionary spirit of the capital, such as the impressive Calatrava Sails, a work of contemporary architecture enhanced by some completion works carried out by the State Property Office; or the Horti Sallustiani, secret gardens from the imperial era, and the surreal Luigi Serafini House Museum, where art and architecture become a journey into imagination.

In the heart of the transformations, an entire section is dedicated to the projects carried out for the 2025 Jubilee, in collaboration with Anas: Piazza dei Cinquecento, Piazza Pia, and the Ponte dell’Industria are some of the infrastructures leading the new urban face.

Open House Roma’s commitment to inclusion is reflected in the multisensory tours available for visitors with disabilities, including tactile visits, activities for people on the autism spectrum, and guided tours in Italian Sign Language (LIS). Young audiences are invited to imagine the city of tomorrow through a dedicated workshop, “The City I Would Like”, organised in partnership with the European Institute of Design in Rome.

We invite all visitors of Open House Roma to participate in the Open Call for Visual Stories—an opportunity to creatively interpret the festival experience and this year’s Open House Europe theme, “Future Heritage”. Submissions can take any visual form, including photography, short film, drawing, or other artistic expressions.