By Nikos Papakonstantinou
The Crown Princess of Great Britain, Elizabeth, and her husband, Prince Philip, fulfilled not only official but also social visits to Greece from 6 to 12 December 1950. Of course they visited the Acropolis, with King Paul and Queen Frederica’s little princesses Sophia and Irene, Prince Philip’s sister, Princess Sophia the wife of Prince George-William of Hanover, brother of Queen Frederica. Despite the sun, the December cold was bitter and forced Queen Frederica to put on and off her white coat. For various reasons Queen Elizabeth never managed to make official visits, to the Kingdom of Greece, or in the Hellenic Republic.
On 30th August 1954, the famous ship of the Royal cruise of 1954 «Agamemnon » arrived in Attica. Guests visited Sounion, Tatoi and above all made pilgrimage to the Acropolis. Many of the older princes had visited the Acropolis before in the past. The younger royals we see in our photo are visiting it for the first time and are justly very impressed.
3rd April 1959. HM Queen Elizabeth of Belgium, Queen-grandmother, made a stop over at Athens airport on her return trip from Tel Aviv flying to Brussels, Belgium. Tireless, despite her 83 years, she asked to take advantage of the time at her disposal and visit the Acropolis! Here she is seen admiring The Acropolis from Filopappou and poses contentedly among the members of her chaperons, the staff of the Belgian Embassy in Athens, who welcomed with joy their Queen and the Grand Chamberlain of the Hellenic court, Dimitrios Levidis, who was in service throughout the duration of her stay in our country (the bald gentleman on her left). She was named the ‘Red Queen’ because she did not hesitate to travel during the Cold War era, to countries behind the iron curtain such as the Soviet Union and Poland, for musicial contests that bore her name. In 1961, two years following her short visit to Athens, she made a visit to China hence fortifying «her bad name.»
In May 1962, for the wedding of Princess Sophia of Greece and Don Juan-Carlos, HM King Humbert of Italy who was incognito, also visited the Acropolis with a necessary tourist guide in hand. He had already made pilgrimage in 1954 as a guest on the Royal cruise with the «Agamemnon.» However as usual the beauty and harmony of The Acropolis always allured visitors to come again and again.
May 1962, Wedding of Princess Sophia to Don Juan Carlos of Spain. The honoured guests at the wedding benefited from the lovely spring weather and visited the Acropolis. In our photo HM King Olaf of Norway with his escort. He has reigned in his country since 1957.
April 1967. Princess Margaret heir to the throne of Denmark came to Athens with her fiance count Enri de Labord de Monpezat. Their marriage was scheduled for less than two months away in Copenhagen. In Athens she wants him to meet Anna-Maria and Constantine and to celebrate her birthday. Above all she wants to take him on a tour of the Acropolis. The couple dedicated a lot of time there so as to have a detailed visit, constantly consulting the guidebook which they had obtained. Margarita is enthralled by archeology, and has participated in excavations in Italy helping her grandfather Kings Gustav-Adolf of Sweden. They departed from Athens on the afternoon of 20th April, and did not live the nightmarish evening when the coup surrounded Tatoi palace and the King with his pregnant Queen behind him wandered throughout the dark palace with a revolver in his hand. The magazine ICONES, had prepared their next edition to be released on 21 April 1967,having on the front page the beautiful photo of Margarita and Enri at the Acropolis.However, the editor Helen Vlachos, closed down her newspapers and magazines resisting the imposition of the dictatorship, and so this issue was never released. Today it is a rare collector’s item.
In September 2014, for the golden wedding anniversary of the royal couple, a family photograph was taken in front of the Acropolis with all their children, daughter-in-laws and son-in-law.It was decided that this photograph be sent with their Christmas wishes to all their friends. The Acropolis is the best »Crown,» the symbol of real democracy, this is the belief of those who accept and serve the King of Greece, whether he is on the throne or not!
Prince Paul, Heir to the throne, during his visit to the Acropolis, takes a selfie with the Parthenon in the background. Prince Paul of Greece, believes that this is the photo that represents him most, and prefers it to any other, even to professional portraits and for that reason he has it on the profile of his facebook page.
The Greek Heir and his brother were unhappy not to have grow up in the shadow of the Sacred rock. Even when in exile in Rome, their teacher Mr Kanellopoulos, taught them to love, admire and adore the Acropolis despite only experiencing it from slides highlighted on the walls of their classrooms. Their parents also taught them, just as they had been taught by their own parents, that the Acropolis was their identity and that one day they would return home and visit it whenever they wished and on each visit they would be filled with joy and pride as Greek royals just as it was for all Greeks. This applied to their children and to their children’s children!
(c) text : Nikos Papakonstantinou.
Photos from the private archives of Nikos Papakonstantinou.
♦ It is strictly forbidden to copy this article in whole or part, and to republish in any type of media!
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