It was in the auditorium of the University of Milan that the Erasmus Prize was awarded for the first time in 1958. The award was unusual in that it was given not to an individual or an institution, but to a group: the Austrian people.
In 1958 a committee consisting of prominent Austrian politicians and the Dutch ambassador to Austria was appointed to allocate the prize funds. They decided to institute grants to Austrians studying in Europe and to foreign students in Austria. Part of the prize was allocated to the Austrian excavations at Ephesus.
Ladies at the reception of the ceremony of the first Erasmus Prize in 1958.
A view of Milan, the city where the first Eramus Prize award ceremony was held in 1958.
During the reception of the first Erasmus Prize award ceremony Milan, 1958.
The first award ceremony of the Erasmus Prize in Milan, 1958.