Established in 1994 by the writer Mircea Dinescu, the Foundation for Poetry focused, initially, on literary activities – poetry, translation, and publishing. Since acquiring, at an auction in 1997, the administration building of a former agricultural port on the Danube, and initiating its reconstruction and reconversion into a cultural center, the Foundation has extended its activities to a wide variety of cultural areas – theatre, music, photography, cinema, plastic arts.
Today, the Foundation for Poetry continues to host residence programs for writers and artists (Port Cetate is an active member of a network of European Literary Houses), translation workshops (with Goethe Institute and other European Cultural Institute), film-makers’ conventions (Balkan Cinema International Symposium), and pottery camps. Port Cetate also hosts annual events like the SoNoRo Interferente chamber music workshop, and the Divan Film Festival, a unique event dedicated to the cinema and the culinary traditions of the Balkans.