The selection of a capital for the newly established Greek state was a matter of grave concern for the Bavarian prince Otto, who had been selected as the first king of Greece. After a lengthy consultation process, he selected Athens in 1834. The king had received a thoroughly neoclassical education on the insistence of his father, King Ludwig I of Bavaria, who was an ardent Philhellene. Athens was the ideal choice for the construction of Greece’s national identity. The triumphal celebration for the arrival of Otto in Athens in 1834 made a great impression and confirmed the rebirth of the ancient Greek ideal that was so dear to the new king.