Honorary citizens of the Municipality of Pyrgos were declared jointly, the President of the Republic, Katerina Sakellaropoulou and Ecumenical Patriarch, Bartholomew, during a ceremony held Saturday night at the city’s municipal hall.

As the President of the Republic emphasized during her opposition to the mayor Panagiotis Antonakopoulos, referring to the resistance action of the professor of Public Economy and a separate, as she said, personality of Pyrgos Sakis Karagiorgas, “democracy is not a given, but is a continuous claim, and we all owe honor to those who, in difficult times, fought so that we can enjoy its goods today”.

Speaking about the Ecumenical Patriarch, Bartholomew, he emphasized that “it is a great honor that you are doing me today, to jointly declare me an honorary citizen of your municipality with a religious leader of international scope and influence, such as the Ecumenical Patriarch, Bartholomew, who understands the natural environment as 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,

It is with great pleasure that I am with you, in the capital of a prefecture that has been brightened, over the centuries, by the beauty, the noble rivalry, the spirituality of Olympia, the “beautiful place”, according to Pindar. In the same place where the ancient city of Letrins existed, among the lush groves of a blessed land. Here, where a small settlement, organized around the tower built at the beginning of the 16th century by Bey Georgios Chernotas, became, thanks to the hard work and progressive mentality of its inhabitants, a crossroads of trade and business activity. To gather, as early as the beginning of the 19th century, banks, foreign trading houses and consulates of the European countries that traded the priceless raisin at the time, and to transform into a modern city, developing close relations and ties with the West.

At the time when Pyrgos lived its own Belle Epoque, we owe the neoclassical residences and majestic buildings, such as the Municipal Agora – now the Archaeological Museum – and the “Apollo” theater, designed by Ernesto Ziller, that adorn the city. Its spiritual flowering dates back to that time. Philharmonic Society, Conservatory, Club of Ilia, 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 here archaeologists, historians, travelers from every corner of the earth.

With the dawn of the 20th century, enlightened personalities cultivated letters and arts in your place, 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, Ilias Papadimitrakopoulos, Pavlos Matesis, Theodoros Xydis, and the poets Takis Sinopoulos and Giorgis Pavlopoulos, who accompanied George and Maro Seferis in the successive their tours in Ilia, in the 60s. However, I want from this step to commemorate a special personality of Pyrgos, who shone with his resistance action in the academic community and beyond. The central square of the city bears his name, in honor of him. I am talking about Sakis Karagiorgas, professor of Public Economy, who rose to prominence in the dictatorship of the colonels, only to be arrested and inhumanely tortured, being seriously injured. His example will always remind us that democracy is not a given, but is a continuous claim, and that we all owe honor to those who, in difficult times, fought so that we can enjoy its goods today.

Mr Mayor,

I follow with interest the beautification, regeneration and road construction projects you have undertaken, with the aim of protecting the environment. Ecological care, aimed at dealing with the climate crisis, must be a priority for all of us. We have a duty to adopt concrete policies, raise public awareness and inspire the environmental ethic of responsibility. Not only for the present, but also for the future of our children and generations to come. And it is a great honor that you are doing me today, to jointly declare me an honorary citizen of your Municipality with a religious leader of international scope and influence, such as the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew. Who perceives the natural environment as our ‘common home’, part of God’s overall creation, and has managed, with his actions over a number of years, to highlight the need for its protection like few others in the world.

I am also glad that the strengthening of the great cultural capital of the city is being promoted, especially that, after the Olympia International Film Festival for Children and Youth, which gathers creators of the seventh art and cinephiles from all over the world, the International Festival of Archaia was also recently instituted Feias, in the bay of Agios Andreas. Your Municipality will have my undivided support in this effort as well”.