The Diplomat
His Majesty the King yesterday hosted a lunch for Prince Albert II of Monaco at the Zarzuela Palace on the occasion of his visit to Spain as part of a tour to commemorate the centenary of the death of his great-great-grandfather, Albert I.
The Royal Household released images of the two men greeting each other on Albert II’s arrival at the palace.
After his visit to the capital and the meeting with Felipe VI, Albert II of Monaco will move to Cantabria, where today he will visit, in Puente Viesgo, the installations of the future Cave Art Centre, which is expected to open its doors at the beginning of 2023, and will return to the Monte Castillo caves, located in the same municipality and of which Albert I was patron of the first excavations.
On his visit to Cantabria, the sovereign will be accompanied by the president of the community, Miguel Ángel Revilla, and other Cantabrian authorities.
The visit of Albert II of Monaco comes more than twelve years after the visit he made on 28 September 2010, when Revilla was also president, to, among other places, the cave of El Castillo.
On the occasion of that visit, a commemorative plaque was installed in the cave, in which Cantabria thanked the Monegasque sovereigns for their patronage of the first excavations in the archaeological site of Monte Castillo, declared a World Heritage Site in 2008.
Now the Monegasque sovereign returns to Cantabria on the occasion of the commemoration of the first centenary of the death of Albert I (1848-1922), who was noted for his patronage of the study of these caves, which he visited on two occasions, in 1909 and 1914.
