Athens Mayor honours Queen Sophia of Spain
Athens Mayor Nikitas Kaklamanis awarded the City of Athens Gold Medal of Merit to the Greek-born Queen Sophia of Spain, acknowledging her humanitarian work, contribution to, and support of Greek art and culture.
"Your Majesty should be aware we are touched by the fact that you do not forget your birthplace, neither our language, nor our culture. And that Your Majesty spares no effort in seeking reasons to emphasize our common cultural heritage and to reinforce the ties between our two nations,” declared Mayor Kaklamanis. “Your Majesty may be Queen to the Spanish people but allow me to say that the Greek people consider you Ambassador of Greek cultural ideals.”
Upon receiving the medal, the city’s highest distinction, the Greek–born and raised Sophia, daughter of the late King Paul of Hellenes, called it “a distinction that my Athenian heart will always cherish.” She then went on to offer her “sincere condolences to all the victims, their families, their friends and compatriots” of last August’s devastating fires.
Recalling her life in Athens, Queen Sophia said her first memories were there. “The light, Attica’s blue sky, the atmosphere, the buzz of the people in the neighborhoods, the open-air markets, accompany me wherever I go…And it is not only my first memories that will always link me to Athens, but also some of the most felicitous and decisive moments in my life, as it was here that my wedding ceremony with the King of Spain was held.”
