American singer and songwriter Patti Smith and Argentine football star Lionel Messi were among the recipients of this year’s Princess of Asturias awards, the Spanish equivalent of the Nobel Prizes.
Leonor, the Princess of Asturias and heir to the Spanish throne, has taken a more central role in leading the awards and the foundation named after her. She’s currently in college following years of military training.
King Felipe and Queen Letizia accompanied her to Friday’s big ceremony and other related events. Queen Sofia and Infanta Sofia were also in Oviedo, the capital of Asturias, for the occasion.
This year’s winners were Messi for sport, Smith in the arts category, British novelist Julian Barnes for literature, Japanese animation Studio Ghibli for communications and the humanities, the Svalbard Global Seed Vault for international cooperation, NASA astronaut Christina Koch for concord, British historian Timothy Garton Ash for social sciences, and DNA scientists David Klenerman, Shankar Balasubramanian and Pascal Mayer.
The Princess of Asturias Awards weekend includes honoring a local community, and this year’s prize went to the Santa Ana Fishermen’s Guild of Llanes, an organization dating back to the Middle Ages.
