%0 Journal Article %T CANDELSz7: a large spectroscopic survey of CANDELS galaxies in the reionization epoch %A A. Fontana %A A. Grazian %A A. M. Koekemoer %A C. J. Conselice %A E. Giallongo %A E. Vanzella %A F. Marchi %A L. Guaita %A L. Pentericci %A M. Bradac %A M. Castellano %A M. Dickinson %A P. Santini %A R. Maiolino %A S. Cristiani %A S. De Barros %A S. L. Finkelstein %A V. Tilvi %J - %D 2018 %R 10.1051/0004-6361/201732465 %X We present the results of CANDELSz7, a European Southern Observatory (ESO) Large Program aimed at spectroscopically confirming a homogeneous sample of z£¿£¿£¿6 and z£¿£¿£¿7 star forming galaxies. The candidates were selected in the GOODS-South, UDS, and COSMOS fields using the official CANDELS catalogs based on H160-band detections. Standard color criteria, which were tailored depending on the ancillary multi-wavelength data available for each field, were applied to select more than 160 candidate galaxies at z£¿£¿£¿6 and z£¿£¿£¿7. Deep, medium-resolution FORS2 spectroscopic observations were then conducted with integration times ranging from 12 to 20 h to reach a Ly¦Á flux limit of approximately 1£¿£¿£¿3£¿¡Á£¿10£¿18 erg s£¿1 cm£¿2 at 3¦Ò. We could determine a spectroscopic redshift for about 40% of the galaxies, mainly through the detection of a single emission line that we interpret as Ly¦Á emission, or for some of the brightest objects (H160£¿¡Ü£¿25.5) from the presence of faint continuum and a sharp drop that we interpret as a Ly¦Á break. In this paper we present the redshifts and main properties of 65 newly confirmed high-redshift galaxies. Adding previous proprietary and archival data we assemble a sample of £¿260 galaxies that we use to explore the evolution of the Ly¦Á fraction in Lyman break galaxies and the change in the shape of the emission line between z£¿¡«£¿6 and z£¿¡«£¿7. We also discuss the accuracy of the CANDELS photometric redshifts in this redshift range %U https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/full_html/2018/11/aa32465-17/aa32465-17.html