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Princess of Asturias Awards

Annual prizes awarded in Spain

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Through UNESCO

The awards are presented every October in a solemn ceremony at Teatro Campoamor in Oviedo, the capital of the Principality of Asturias, and are presented by the heir to the Spanish throne, currently Leonor, Princess of Asturias. Each recipient present at the ceremony receives a diploma, a sculpture expressly created for the awards by Spanish sculptor Joan Miró and a pin with the emblem of the Foundation. There is also a monetary prize of €50,000 for each category; this amount is shared if the category has more than one recipient.

They were declared of "exceptional contribution to the cultural heritage of Humanity" by UNESCO in 2004.

Background

The Prince of Asturias Awards were established on 24 September 1980, with the creation of the Prince of Asturias Foundation, in a ceremony presided by Felipe, Prince of Asturias, then heir to the throne of Spain, "to consolidate links between the Principality and the Prince of Asturias, and to contribute to, encourage and promote scientific, cultural and humanistic values that form part of mankind's universal heritage". The first awards ceremony was held on 31 October 1981.

Following Felipe's accession as King of Spain in 2014, the foundation and the awards were renamed to reflect the new heiress presumptive to the Spanish throne, Leonor, Princess of Asturias. King Felipe continued to preside over the awards ceremony until the Princess of Asturias turned 18 (the age of majority for Spanish royal purposes) on 31 October 2023. Princess Leonor first attended the ceremony, handed out awards to winners and delivered her first speech as heiress during the 39th Princess of Asturias Awards Ceremony on 18 October 2019.

If a laureate does not attend to the ceremony to collect their award, they receive neither the sculpture nor the monetary prize, even if the absence is because of force majeure. Only a few laureates have not attended; among them are Bob Dylan, who refused to go to Oviedo in 2007 but asked for the sculpture unsuccessfully, writer Philip Roth in 2012 for medical reasons, and Pau and Marc Gasol in 2015, who were not allowed to attend by their NBA teams.

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