Each year, the European Commission designates a city in Europe and bestows on it the title of European Capital of Culture. The project was born in 1985 with Mélina Mercouri and Jack Lang, both Ministers of Culture in Greece and France. Paris received this title in 1989 as a reward for the numerous activities carried out for the bicentenary of the French Revolution. It contributed to an ever-increasing influx of visitors to the capital and acted as an eminent trigger in the cultural field.