25 Saturday Dec 2010
Posted in Romanian Royal Family
Tags
Casa Regala, Christmas Message, Eastern Europe, European royal families, Familia regala, Familia regala romana, History, Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, istoria regalitatii, King Michael of Romania, Monarhia, Noblesse et Royautés, Regele Mihai, Romanian Royal Family, South-East European Monarchs
King Michael of Romania’s Christmas 2010 message (via Romania Altfel. A blog by Prince Radu of Romania) – click the image above to access the article [in Romanian].
30 Wednesday Dec 2009
Posted in Romanian Royal Family
Tags
Crown Princess Margarita, Familia regala, Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, istoria regalitatii, King Michael of Romania, Monarhia, Noblesse et Royautés, non reigning monarchs, Prince Radu, Principesa Margareta, Queen Anne, Regele Mihai, Regina Ana, Romanian Royal Family, South-East European Monarchs
Last night (28 Dec.2009) I watched on the Romanian national TV station (TVR1) a short interview with HM King Michael of Romania. It preceded the message of the Romanian Royal Family for the New Year 2010.
I was thrilled to hear HM analyzing the precarious state of nation, now in a middle of an economic and political crisis, in such an even headed and informed manner. HM cares about and deeply loves his country, no matter how many evils are inside the society. King Michael stated that he well understands that during the soviet occupation and subsequent communist regime the mentalities of many fellow citizens were radically altered, and many of the civilization values gained during the Kingdom vanished in many ways. What HM does not embrace is the continuous decay of the country in the last two decades, since it is truly free from outside oppression, generated because of the eternal political disputes, un-European mores and attitudes, which brought Romania into a deep economic crisis, from which it will now take many years to recover.
The monarchy has modernised the country over eight eventful decades since the 1860s until mid 1940s. What remains today of the country is only a shadow of the glorious old Kingdom of Romania; a shadow of a state that has a long and difficult way ahead to recover its values and prosperity…
Diana Mandache
©www.royalromania.wordpress.com
22 Tuesday Dec 2009
Tags
Balkans, Eastern Europe, Familia regala, King Michael of Romania, Monarhia, Noblesse et Royautés, non reigning monarchs, Regele Mihai, Romanian Revolution 1989, Romanian Royal Family, Royal Palaces
The royal palace and King Carol I Foundation were badly affected by machine-gun fire exchanges during the Romanian Revolution when Ceausescu was toppled from power, December 1989 (Diana Mandache's Weblog http://www.royalromania.wordpress.com)
The royal palace and King Carol I Foundation were badly affected by machine-gun fire exchanges during the Romanian Revolution when Ceausescu was toppled from power, December 1989
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I endeavour in the “Weekly Pictures” post series to bring to light worthy of note, often less known images from the royal past and present and thus further enhance the understanding of royal history and what it represents for us.
Weekly picture: Diana Mandache’s weblog Royal History.
All rights reserved ©www.royalromania.wordpress.com
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Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author is strictly prohibited.
28 Monday Sep 2009
Tags
Castele si palate regale, Castles and Palaces, Familia regala, Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, King Carol I, Monarhia, Noblesse et Royautés, Regele Carol I, Romanian Royal Family, Royal Palaces, South-East European Monarchs
The Royal Palace, Bucharest (Calea Victoriei Avenue), old postcard, late 19th century, chromolithography - Diana Mandache's Weblog Royal History
I endeavour in the “Weekly Pictures” post series to bring to light worthy of note, often less known images from the royal past and present and thus further enhance the understanding of royal history and what it represents for us.
Weekly picture: Diana Mandache’s weblog Royal History.
All rights reserved www.royalromania.wordpress.com
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The above image is not for copying or duplication over the internet i.e. forums, blogs etc.
25 Monday May 2009
Posted in Romanian Royal Family
Tags
Bran castle, Castelul Bran, Crown Princess Margarita of Romania, Familia regala, inima Reginei Maria, istoria regalitatii, King Michael of Romania, Monarhia, Noblesse et Royautés, Princess Ileana of Romania, Queen Anne, Queen Marie of Romania, Regina Maria, Reine Marie de Roumanie, Romanian Royal Family
Queen Marie of Romania. Regina Maria on Facebook
According to Queen Marie’s last wish, her heart was to be buried separately, as in the medieval customs of which she was very found as a personality formed during Victorian times. The heart was first interred in the chapel of her Black Sea palace in Balcic in 1938. After that area has been ceded to Bulgaria, the heart was re-interred by her daughter Princess Ileana in 1940 in the chapel in the rock, near Bran castle, another property of Marie much loved by her, located in the Transylvanian Alps. The communist regime at the end of the 1950s once again removed the heart from Bran and put it in storage at the National History Museum in Bucharest, where it suffered numerous indignities at the hands of an insensitive personnel employed by the communist authorities. The successive post-communist governments continued to keep the heart in storage for the last two decades.
With the return of the Bran Castle to Princess Ileana successors (the inheritors of the property), the authorities decided to lend the heart until 2013 as a heritage piece to the newly created museum located in the medieval Custom House of Bran, just accross the road from the former chapel in the rock that still has the marble sarcophagus that once contained Marie’s heart. This new museum hosts the royal heritage objects until recently exhibited by the Bran Castle. The building of Bran castle’s old Custom House is scheduled to be returned in 2013 to Princess Ileana’s descendants. Until that date Marie’s heart is going to be one of the exhibits in the ad hoc museum. The authorities plan to move Queen Marie’s heart to this temporarily resting place at the end of this week, on 31 May 2009. Princess’ Ileana children will also reopen Bran Castle for the public on 1 June 2009.
This is the latest drama in the long saga of Marie’s hearth tormented fate induced by the political conjunctures in the Balkans and Romania ever since she died. In September 1940, Balcic a small town on the Black Sea shore, the place where Marie desired to have her heart buried inside the chapel “Stella Maris” on her estate, was incorporated by Bulgaria after Romania yielded to pressures from fascist Germany and Italy that ganged up with the Soviet Union to cede territories in order to satisfy their geopolitcal interests. Marie’s heart rested in Balcic for just two years from 1938 to 1940. At Ileana’s request the heart was reburied in Bran, nearby Prince Mircea’s grave. A small chapel in the rock, opposite the castle, was erected for Queen Marie’s heart.
The Chapel in the rock, Bran. Photo by Valentin Mandache
In January 1948 the royal family went into exile following the communist take over. Marie’s heart remained in the same place until the end of 1950s when the communist regime decided to remove it inside a depot at the National History Museum. The citizens of Bran demanded after the fall of communism (1989) that the Queen’s heart must be returned and reburied in Bran. Starting with 31 May 2009, Queen Marie’s heart will be put in the small silver box (see the first photograph) where was initially laid when she died and travel again towards Bran. Originally the small silver box containing the heart was placed in a larger gilded silver chest encrusted with diamonds, rubies and other precious jewels (see the photograph) that was given as a present to Marie when she first arrived in Romania by an organisation representing Romanian ladies. That chest remains within the treasury of the National History Museum in Bucharest and thus the drama of Marie’s heart continues to be at the mercy of Romania’s pathetic Balkan political elite and its whims, incapable after two decades since the fall of communism to restore dignity to one of the important personalities of this country’s past. ©Diana Mandache
Queen Marie of Romania. Regina Maria on Facebook
N.B. The latest press news from Romania (1st week of June 2009): the authorities backed down in their horrible plan to shuffle Queen Marie’s heart between different locations in Romania, after many people and organisations voiced protests. The heart remains in storage at the National Museum of History in Bucharest.
All rights reserved©Diana Mandache http://royalromania.wordpress.com
22 Friday May 2009
Posted in Romanian Royal Family
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04 Monday May 2009
Posted in Romanian Royal Family
Tags
Carmen Sylva, Elizabeth of Wied, European royal families, Familia regala, istoria regalitatii, Monarhia, Queen Elizabeth of Romania, Regina Elisabeta, Romanian Royal Family, Royalty
These photographs show the Poetess Queen (Carmen Sylva), Elisabeth of Romania in similar positions, looking from a window, in two different locations, decades apart between them. The first one is a CDV by Herman Koch from Neuwied made in 1869 just before Elisabeth of Wied become a Romanian Princess and afterward Queen; the second image is a private snapshot taken by a member of the Romanian family in Bucharest in her last years of life. Both images are very telling regarding the romantic nature of the Poetess Queen. ©Diana Mandache
All rights reserved©Diana Mandache http://royalromania.wordpress.com
28 Tuesday Apr 2009
Posted in Exhibitions, Romanian Royal Family
Tags
Anne of Bourbon-Parma, Carmen Sylva, Casa Regala, Crown Princess Margarita, Familia regala, istoria regalitatii, King Carol I, King Ferdinand, King Michael of Romania, Mignon, Monarhia, Principesa Margareta, Queen Anne, Queen Elizabeth of Romania, Queen Marie of Romania, Regele Carol I, Regele Ferdinand, Regele Mihai, Regina Elisabeta, Regina Maria, Romanian Royal Family
The National History Museum of Romania in Bucharest is hosting a new exhibition on the Romanian Royal Family, scheduled for opening at the end of next week. I am one of the organisers and plan to write more in a forthcoming post about this important royal history event after 10 May (Romania’s National Royal Day) when the exhibition will be in full swing. I also contributed with a number of exhibits from my own collection, among them a series of letters between Queen Mother Helen and Prince Leonid Lieven. Stars of the exhibition are some rare portrait paintings loaned from the National Museum of Arts Queen Marie, King Carol I, King Ferdinand, Princess Elisabeta, King Michael and his mother Queen Helen. ©Diana Mandache
21 Tuesday Apr 2009
Posted in Romanian Royal Family
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