Honorary citizens of the Municipality of Pyrgos were jointly declared, the President of the Republic, Katerina Sakellaropoulou and the Ecumenical Patriarch, Bartholomew, during a ceremony held tonight at the city's municipal hall.
As the President of the Republic pointed out during her opposition to the mayor Panagiotis Antonakopoulos, referring to the resistance action of the professor of Public Economy and separately, as he said, personality of Pyrgos Sakis Karagiorgas, "democracy is not a given, but it is a continuous claim, and we all owe honor to those, in difficult times, they fought so that we can enjoy its goods today".
Speaking of the Ecumenical Patriarch, Bartholomew, he emphasized that "the honor you are doing me today is great, to jointly declare me an honorary citizen of your municipality with a religious leader of international scope and influence, like the Ecumenical Patriarch, Bartholomew, who perceives the natural environment as the “our common home”, part of God's total creation".
The following is the full text of the opposition of the President of the Republic, to the mayor of Pyrgos:
"Mr Mayor,
I am very happy to be with you, in the capital of a prefecture that brightened, through the centuries, from the beauty, the noble Amilla, the spirituality of Olympia, of “beautiful place”, according to Pindar. In the same area where the ancient city of Latrines existed, among the sweet groves of a blessed land. Here, which a small settlement, organized around the tower built at the beginning of the 16th century by Bey Georgios Chernotas, it came to be, thanks to the industriousness and progressive mentality of its inhabitants, crossroads of trade and business. To collect, as early as the beginning of the 19th century, banks, foreign trading houses and consulates of European countries that traded in the priceless raisin at the time, and transform into a modern city, developing close relations and ties with the West.
We owe the Neoclassical residences and majestic buildings to the time when Pyrgos lived its own Belle Epoque, such as the Municipal Market – now Archaeological Museum – and the "Apollo" theater, in designs by Ernesto Ziller, that adorn the city. Its spiritual flowering dates back to that time. Philharmonic Society, Conservatory, Club of Ilias, Public Central Library, cinemas create a web of artistic and educational activity. And the proximity to the sacred site of ancient Olympia, especially after the revival of the Olympic Games, brings archaeologists here, historians, travelers from every corner of the earth.
With the dawn of the 20th century, enlightened personalities cultivated letters and arts in your country, giving new life to cultural and social life. Some overcoming with their work the narrow limits of their birthplace, such as the writers Dionysios Kokkinos, Takis Doxas, Elias Papadimitrakopoulos, Pavlos Matesis, Theodoros Xydis, and the poets Takis Sinopoulos and Giorgis Pavlopoulos, who accompanied George and Maro Seferis on their successive tours of Ilia, in the 60s. But from this step I want to mention a special personality of the Tower, who shone with his resistance action in the academic community and beyond. His name, honorary, bears the central square of the city. I'm talking about Sakis Karagiorgas, professor of Public Economy, who raised his stature to the dictatorship of the colonels, to be arrested and inhumanely tortured, being seriously injured. His example will always remind us that democracy is not a given, but it is a continuous claim, and that we all owe honor to those, in difficult times, they fought so that we can enjoy its goods today.
Mr Mayor,
I am watching the landscaping projects with interest, regeneration and road construction that you have undertaken, with the aim of protecting the environment. Ecological care, aimed at addressing the climate crisis, it should be a priority for all of us. We have a duty to adopt specific policies, to raise public awareness and inspire the environmental ethic of responsibility. Not just for now, αλλά και για το μέλλον των παιδιών μας και των γενεών που έρχονται. Και είναι μεγάλη η τιμή που μου κάνετε σήμερα, να με ανακηρύξετε από κοινού επίτιμη δημότη του Δήμου σας με έναν θρησκευτικό ηγέτη διεθνούς εμβέλειας και ακτινοβολίας, όπως ο Οικουμενικός Πατριάρχης Βαρθολομαίος. Ο οποίος αντιλαμβάνεται το φυσικό περιβάλλον ως το ‘κοινό μας σπίτι’, μέρος της συνολικής κτίσης του Θεού, και έχει κατορθώσει, με τις δράσεις του επί σειρά ετών, να αναδείξει την ανάγκη για προστασία του όσο λίγοι παγκοσμίως.
I am also glad that the strengthening of the great cultural capital of the city is being promoted, especially, where, then the Olympia International Film Festival for Children and Youth, which brings together creators of the seventh art and cinephiles from all over the world, the International Ancient Fairy Festival was also recently instituted, in the bay of Agios Andreas. Your Municipality will have my undivided support in this effort as well".