The fifteenth Italian edition of Wiki Loves Monuments, the photography competition dedicated to the documentation of cultural heritage, kicked off on September 1st. Organized by Wikimedia Italia volunteers in collaboration with the Italian Federation of Photographic Associations and with the patronage of the National Association of Italian Municipalities, this year the initiative is also divided into eleven local competitions distributed throughout the country.
The theme chosen for 2026 is historic villas and palaces: noble homes, representative residences, buildings that have hosted public institutions over time. Places which, according to the organizers, preserve not only an architectural value but the memory of the political, social and cultural transformations the country has undergone over the centuries.
The competition takes place entirely online through a web-app which allows you to consult a map of the monuments registered and the number of photographs already present on Wikimedia Commons for each of them. Participation is free and open to anyone who wants to upload their own shots. Finally, a national jury will select ten images that will represent Italy in the international ranking of the competition.
The numbers of the event confirm Italy’s leading role on the international scene. In the 2025 edition, the country recorded the highest number of participants among the 56 national competitions involved, with over 500 photographers and more than 26,000 images uploaded, placing second in terms of overall number of photographs collected. An Italian photograph has also entered the final international ranking in nine of the latest editions.
Since 2012, the year in which Wikimedia Italia launched the national chapter of the competition, the total participants have exceeded 11,000, enriching Wikimedia Commons with over 300,000 photographs depicting almost 47,000 Italian monuments and cultural heritage. An archive that has exceeded one billion views on Wikipedia pages in 81 languages, confirming how the images uploaded during the competition continue to circulate and be consulted well beyond the duration of the event. The complete rules and all the information to participate are available on the Wikimedia Italia website.