The Torch Is Passed to Spain : Olympics: About 25,000 attend ceremonies at Empuries, but Samaranch is absent. Catalonian nationalists demonstrate.

EMPURIES, Spain — Centuries ago, Greek and Roman ships crossed the Mediterranean to do business in this tiny town, transforming Empuries into a trading stronghold that lasted nearly 800 years.

But it is doubtful any cargo ever was cherished as much as that which docked Saturday night.

Escorted by an armada of more than 300 sailboats and serenaded by five choirs, the Olympic flame finally arrived on Spanish soil, six years after Barcelona was awarded the 1992 Summer Games and more than 60 after it started bidding.

The flame, transported from Greece by the frigate Catalonia, was rowed ashore by an ancient fishing boat at 9:10 p.m. Its arrival set in motion a torch relay that will culminate with the beginning of the Games on July 25.

“We welcome the Olympic flame to Empuries,” said Barcelona Mayor Pasqual Maragall, who doubles as the president of the Barcelona Olympic Organizing Committee (COOB). “It will light the future of our people, purify our ideals, and warm Barcelonans, Catalans and Spaniards alike. . . . We have waited for this moment for such a very long time.”

The flame was greeted during a 55-minute ceremony that featured nearly 2,000 actors, singers and dancers and culminated in the lighting of the Olympic torch amid ancient Greek and Roman ruins.

The ceremony also included the reading of a letter written by 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, believed to be her first public statement since being placed under house arrest in her native Burma three years ago.

Despite fears of terrorist activity or political demonstrations, disturbances were kept to a minimum by extremely heavy security in Empuries. A group of nationalists carrying Spanish flags were quickly routed by a jeering, whistling, rock-throwing mob, which then burned a Spanish flag while a lone demonstrator interrupted a saxophone solo to quietly drape a “Freedom For Catalonia” banner around the Olympic caldron.

Although it was rumored that Juan Antonio Samaranch, International Olympic Committee president, would be the first official torch-bearer in Spain, he failed to attend the ceremony. Instead, the job fell to two former Spanish athletes, cross-country runner Carmen Valero and yachtsman Miquel Noguer, who jointly ran the initial leg of the 43-day torch relay to the nearby town of L’Escala.

The torch will now crisscross Spain, reaching all 17 autonomous regions and every Olympic subsite, and even touching the Canary Islands off the west coast of Africa and the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean. The journey will cover 3,690 miles and include 9,484 torch bearers--500 meters per leg for runners, one-half mile for cyclists--all at a cost of about $10 million.

Samaranch reportedly will take part June 19 in Sant Sadurni d’Anoia, in the heart of Catalonia’s champagne country. A former journalist, Samaranch will run together with a group of veteran sportswriters.

Empuries, a small resort town about 75 miles north of Barcelona, was chosen for the arrival of the Olympic flame because of its relationship with the Greek and Roman empires. Empuries was the site of the first Greek settlement in Spain, and it lasted as a Roman stronghold well into the third century A.D.

Ruins of both civilizations are scattered up and down the shoreline.

Olympic organizers keyed upon those themes during the torch ceremony, which was watched by a crowd estimated at 25,000 dispersed along the rocky cliffs and throughout the pine forests and by countless others on television. The flame, sealed inside a gold lantern, entered through Roses harbor, carried by a young actress portraying a Greek goddess.

From there, the flame was transported to an ancient Greek pier, where a torch was lit and carried through first the Roman ruins, then the Greek ruins, by a series of runners. Along the way, musicians playing ancient instruments joined with the chorale “Cor de Clave” to mark the occasion.

The torch arrived next at the reviewing stand, where the official Olympic torch was lighted.

Suu Kyi’s letter, written at the request of Spanish Olympic organizers, was read by her 19-year-old son, Alexander Aris. In the letter, the political activist called for world peace and understanding.

“Ours is still a world divided,” she wrote, “checkered by walls of fear and hatred and ignorance that keep apart those of different races, religion, ideology or opinion.

” . . . There is a great need to reach out beyond the narrow, the stultifying and the destructive to universal values which integrate and uplift the human spirit at the same time as material standards are raised.”

Other highlights of the ceremony included sky divers, dance performances, poetry readings, and a giant kite bearing the image of Pegasus, the symbol of Empuries. The saxophonist played Pablo Casals’ “Song of the Birds” to bring the evening to a close.