Pilgrim’s path gets award

8 September 2004

MADRID – The Road to Santiago, a route travelled by millions of pilgrims since the 9th century to the north-west Spanish city of Santiago de Compostela, has won the 2004 Prince of Asturias Concord Prize.

The award recognises the contribution of the Road to Santiago to the building of Europe and the development of European identity across the centuries.

The Road to Santiago has been declared a World Heritage Site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).

This year’s nominees included 39 entries from 20 countries, and the panel of judges was presided over by the head of Asturias province, Vicente Alvarez Areces, and included members of the board of directors of the Prince of Asturias Foundation.

Last year’s Concord Prize was awarded to JK. Rowling, the British author of the phenomenally successful Harry Potter series of children’s books.

Other 2004 Prince of Asturias Award recipients include French journalist Jean Daniel (Communications and Humanities); Italian writer Claudio Magris (Letters); American economist Paul Krugman (Social Sciences); and cancer research scientists Judah Folkman, Tony Hunter, Joan Massague Sole, Bert Vogelstein and Robert Weinberg (Technical and Scientific Research).

The International Cooperation Prize was awarded to the European Union’s Erasmus university scholarship programme, while Spanish guitarist Paco de Lucia won the Arts Prize.

[Copyright EFE with Expatica]

Subject: Spanish news