The International Congress “Virtual City and Territory” was born from an idea of ​​Josep Roca Cladera, director of the CPSV-Center of Land Policy and Valuation of the UPC-Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, in Barcelona. The CTV Congress was originally intended to be a meeting place to present and discuss the developments of digital models and tools for the virtual representation of the built environment, against the backdrop of the activities related to the Forum of Cultures held in Barcelona in 2004.

In that first event, around 100 researchers from various parts of the world gathered together to discuss projects and progress in three specific thematic areas for three days: Virtual cities in the world, Virtual territory and 3D cartography and Virtual representation of heritage.

At the end of the 1^st CTV Congress, it was decided to continue this “meeting place” on an annual/biennial basis, alternately in America and Europe, and to broaden the topics covered to the entire sector of urban studies, with the aim of “re-thinking the city” at the dawn of the Third Millennium, but considering different disciplinary points of view.

A network has gradually formed, which has been joined by institutions, both university and non-university, and researchers and experts, who have fueled the thirteen subsequent editions, each time identifying a different common thread, including:

• (Concepción, 2006).
• Ripensare la città (Guadalajara, 2007).
• Strategie per trasformare e amministrare la città: prospettive e nuove tecnologie (Barcelona, 2009).
• (Mexicali, 2010).
• (Lisbon, 2011).
• (Rio de Janeiro, 2012).
• Città · Memoria · Gente (Rome, 2013).
• Dispersione/concentrazione dei territori urbani alla luce delle tecnologie del XXI secolo (Monterrey, 2014).
• Ritorno al senso della città (Krakow, 2016).
• Città e territori intelligenti (Mendoza, 2018).
• Sfide e paradigmi della città contemporanea (Barcelona, 2019).
• Nuove sfide per lo sviluppo contemporaneo della città (Bogotà/Cartagena de Indias, 2022).