The Deputy Mayor, Mr. Santiago Domínguez, announced this Thursday that the Reconquest Congress will be held on the 12th and 13th of March, 2009, at the Centro Social Caixanova, with the presence of the best European experts. Mr. Santiago Domínguez added that the website www.reconquistadevigo.com is fully operational in four languages, namely: Galician, Spanish, English and French.
"We are working from the Deputy Mayor’s Office to make the Bicentenary celebrations special, complete and with the presence of prestigious international experts, just like in the case of the congress on the Reconquest", explained the Deputy Mayor. He likewise pointed out that the speakers have confirmed their attendance at the symposium and all of them are world experts on historic research of the Napoleonic era. Amongst the speakers, is a descendent of Napoleon, namely; Prince Charles Napoleon Bonaparte, who will be present in Vigo at the inauguration of the congress. Other participants will include lecturers from the Universities of Oxford, Liverpool and Stirling, from the U.K., and from the University of La Sorbonne, in France.
Mr. Santiago Domínguez recalled that a popular uprising held on the 28th of March, 1809, permitted the recovery of Vigo from the hands of the Napoleonic occupation troops. More than 1400 imperial soldiers were taken prisoners and the Olive city of Vigo was the focus of a counter offensive throughout Galicia, which led to the final retreat of Napoleon’s army. According to the Deputy Mayor, this historic fact that the Vigo citizens commemorate as the "Reconquest", had a great significance because Vigo was later conferred with the title of “city” by the Regency, while it was the first time ever that Napoleon’s army had to retreat for good from a conquered town.
Participants include Charles Esdaile, lecturer in History (European Napoleonic and Modern Spanish). He is currently doing research into Napoleon’s Reign in Spain (1808 – 1813). Jean René Aymes, Professor Emeritus at the University of La Sorbonne of Paris III, is researching into Spanish-French relations from a wide range of aspects (conflicts, mutual influences, travel tales…) and cover the 18th and 19th centuries. Michael Broers is interested in the history of Italy and France of the 18th and 19th centuries, and especially the Napoleonic period. He is an expert on the application of cultural imperialistic theories in Europe within the context of the Napoleonic Revolution. Michael Rapport is a lecturer at the Department of History at Stirling University. He was the secretary of the French History Studies Society from 2000 to 2005, and is also the Editor of the newspaper "French History".
Mr. Xosé Ramón Barreiro Fernández will also be participating in the congress. He is a tenured lecturer of Contemporary Galician History at the University of Santiago de Compostela. He was the Dean of the Faculty of Geography & History. Since 20th December, 2001, he is the President of the Royal Galician Academy and is considered as the greatest expert in Galicia on the Napoleonic era. Charles Napoleon Bonaparte Napoleon VII, Imperial Prince, was born in 1950, is a French politician and the head of the French Imperial House as the great-great-grandson of Emperor Napoleon’s brother. He has a PhD in Economics from the University of La Sorbonne. In 2000, he presented himself as a candidate in the elections of the Mayor of Ajaccio, the city of the Bonaparte family, and in 2004, was elected as the Deputy Mayor of this city. He is currently the leader of the political party called "Ensemble Pour Lees Nemouriens"
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