“Civic virtues” are “the essence of democratic life.” This was stated by King Felipe VI during his visit with Queen Letizia this Tuesday to the Ateneo de Madrid to celebrate the first two centuries of the institution. With his presence, the kings supported the history and prestige of one of the most important private cultural centers in our recent history. A refuge of free thought» in which they inaugurated the exhibition ‘Two centuries looking for the light’, a summary of the spirit of the house that celebrates its bicentennial confident in its future.
“The issues may be new in their specific developments, but they evoke universal and perennial moral foundations. Although it is true that things have changed a lot in these 200 years of our history, our hopes as a nation have not changed: to live in an open, tolerant, deeply supportive country and in which civic virtues are the essence of our democracy. », affirmed the monarch and member of the Athenaeum. He celebrated the past and the aspirations of the house, “a refuge for free thought,” he said, “which he has always known to be at the forefront of culture and science.”
The most veteran philosopher and ateneista, Emilio Lledó, a member since 1949, celebrated returning to his “second home”. “Here I learned to dialogue with a philosopher from 24 centuries ago, Aristotle, who taught me that friendship is the most valuable thing in life, that reading is dialogue, and where I became friends with books,” said Lledó. “Reading is dialogue and culture, it is not the land or the mother tongue: it is the flow of thought that feeds the ‘well-being’ that is made with culture and thought,” said the veteran thinker and professor.
Tolerance, equality and wisdom
Its current managers want to feed this dialogue and position the Ateneo as a cultural institution of reference. Under the motto ‘The light that unites us’, its president, Luis Arroyo, celebrated the 203-year history of the house as a temple “of tolerance, equality and wisdom”.
The actors Miguel Rellán and Leire Martín, the Trio Arbós and the singer Atonio Ricardo Gómez Muñoz, ‘el Turry’, enlivened the act that took place in the Institution’s chair. In the bulerías and granaínas that ‘el Turry’ performed, the cajón sounded and Miguel Rellán, the presenter, invited the monarch to play this flamenco instrument, as he did recently at the Language Congress in Cádiz. “I think it’s something that I’ll take with me for the rest of my life,” the King said smiling as soon as he went on stage.
The King demanded that Ateneo “assume the task” of facing these challenges “offering its light” to Spain. “The civic values of freedom, solidarity and equality, today recorded in our Constitution, had and have a privileged place for reflection and development at the Ateneo,” he said. He cited some of the “most prominent” ateneists such as the doctor and thinker Gregorio Marañón, the president of the Second Republic, Manuel Azaña, or the first member of the institution, Emilia Pardo Bazán. A lady of letters who spent more than a century alone in the portrait gallery, which has now been joined by Clara Campoamor, Carmen de Burgos, Carmen Laforet and Almudena Grandes.
Felipe VI, during his speech.
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The visit of the kings concluded with a tour of the exhibition ‘Two centuries looking for light’ in the library of the learned institution. On the bill only until April 30, it presents the history of the Athenaeum in small brushstrokes: from the election system with black and white balls of its first partner in 1836, the writer Mariano José de Larra, to the evolution of the tokens of its associates, going through old photos of its rooms, documents and manuscripts of its members, bibliographic and artistic collections or collections as peculiar as its glass plates from the 19th century.
The Ateneo library is from its origin a secular sanctuary for the cult of knowledge and learning. Its desks and books have forged intellectuals and thinkers who, since modernism, encouraged the generations of ’98, ’14 and ’27, and literary avant-gardes that, like ultraism, found ways of expression in the Ateneo.
Created in 1820 to “spread the light” and educate the public, the Ateneo Español was born, closed in 1823. Under the protection of Queen Regent María Cristina, the Ateneo de Madrid arose, with the same premise as its predecessor: to spread culture to all social strata. In 1884 Antonio Cánovas del Castillo and King Alfonso XII inaugurated their current headquarters on Calle del Prado, in the Madrid neighborhood of letters, very close to the Congress.