This report appeared in Today's Home News, Oct. 1, 2004.
October 1, 2004
The director of the Historian’s Office of the City of Havana, Eusebio Leal Spengler, arrived in Thessaloniki this week for contacts with local officials as well as a visit to the autonomous monastic community of Mount Athos.
Leal, an adviser to Cuban leader Fidel Castro, was received by Thessaloniki Mayor Vassilis Papageorgopoulos, among others, for talks regarding preparations for twinning the two major port cities, Havana and Thessaloniki.
The noted Cuban scholar and archaeologist was accompanied on his tour of Mount Athos, east of Thessaloniki, by Orthodox Metropolitan of Panama and Central America Athinagoras. He also visited the Vergina archaeological site.
Leal was instrumental in the recent opening of the first Orthodox church in the large Caribbean country, the Cathedral of Aghios Nikolaos (St. Nicholas) in Havana. The church was dedicated by Ecumenical Patriarch Vartholomeos.