26 Monday Jul 2010
Tags
Castelul Peles, European royal families, Familia regala, Ileana Archduchess of Austria, Pelesh Castle, Princess Ileana of Romania, Printesa Ileana, Romanian Royal Family, Royal ceremonies, Royal weddings
26 July 1931, Royal wedding at the Pelesh Castle: Ileana of Romania & Anton of Habsburg – Toscana
All rights reserved©Diana Mandache’s Weblog: Royal History
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
01 Wednesday Apr 2009
Posted in European royal families, Romanian Royal Family
Tags
Anton of Habsburg, Austria, Familia regala, Habsburg, Princess Ileana of Romania, Printesa Ileana, Queen Marie of Romania, Regina Maria, Romanian Royal Family
Bran Castle
The misunderstandings between Romania’s Ministry of Culture and Dominic Habsburg, the head of the family that now owns the castle, left the museum in an uncertain territory, even after at the end of January they seemed to have come to an agreement. They decided at that date to continue having the castle functioning as a museum, under private ownership, with the state providing the specialist personnel to run it. For details see my previous post “Bran castle given back to Princess Ileana’s descendants”.
Domnic Habsburg arrived at the end of March in Romania to probably deal with that situation in person and can be listen in the news footage bellow (the others speakers tell the reporter in Romanian about the removal of the royal heritage objects to the nearby museum, also some visitors express their disappointed about the empty castle). Dominic Habsburg hopes to replenish the castle with objects sometime in the future and have it returned to the touristic circuit, but without having on display its royal heritage furniture and other objects. ©Diana Mandache
I have just received today (28 May 2009) a message from Mr Mark Meyer , lawyer at Herzfeld & Rubin, P.C., with the following content:
In January, it seemed that an agreement had been reached to maintain the collections at Bran at the expense of the children of Princess Ileana keeping all of the employees on salaries entirely paid for by the family. Then Mr. Paleologu insisted that an additional fee in excess of € 9,000 per month be paid to the Ministry for the right of the family to display the property stolen from them by the Romanian government in 1948. In my view, it is obscene to ask the victims of a theft to pay a rental to the thief just to display their own personal property, particularly in circumstances where it is in a public service. To me, it is unseemly for a Minister to barter in stolen goods – albeit not ones returnable as of right in Romania (although in most civilized countries, a conversion of this magnitude remains actionable). Mr. Paleologu apparently believed otherwise and proceeded to sack Bran Castle of everything, doing more damage than the communists ever did. He striped the castle even of its lighting, all in an act that I regard to be cultural vandalism. That “local law firm appointed to manage the affairs of the castle” is not managing the castle – that is being done by a management company; but the firm has seen to it that all of the employees not taken by Mr. Paleologu for his museum remained at Bran Castle, and it has done an incredible job of fixing the damage wrought by Mr. Paleologu, restoring the castle almost to a level equal to the pre-communist era, and creating new an exciting displays and events. It is only the beginning of the effort to make Bran Castle a world destination point.
All rights reserved ©Diana Mandache http://royalromania.wordpress.com
28 Saturday Mar 2009
Tags
Alfonso XIII of Spain, Austria, European royal families, Familia regala, Habsburg, Princess Ileana of Romania, Queen Elisabeth of Greece, Queen Marie of Romania, Regina Maria, Romanian Royal Family, Royalty
This is a short film footage (no sound) from the Christening ceremony of Stefan of Austria (the heir of Anton Archduke of Austria & Ileana of Romania) at Moedling, 1932. In the foreground is Queen Marie of Romania, Alfonso XIII of Spain, Elizabeth, Queen of Greece. The close shot presents Queen Marie of Romania and Alfonso of Spain coming down steps with other people.
Diana Mandache http://royalromania.wordpress.com
