Thursday, April 28, 2011

Remembering a Great Woman *

From 1 October to 30 October, Vianden Castle will host the exhibit Remembering a Great Woman, honoring Grand Duchess Charlotte. The exhibit should not be confused with the traveling exhibit that toured Luxembourg last year.

The new exhibit will include several interesting parts. Visitors will enjoy rare photographs documenting important events of Charlotte's life: childhood, youth, exile, official engagements and in the company of notable persons of the last century. The photographs will be complimented by related newspaper articles and documents. A detailed genealogy will be included in the exhibit.

In addition to providing all of the details above, a member of the administrative staff at Vianden Castle informed me that the exhibit is organized "under the protectorate of Grand Duke Jean."

Grand Duchess Charlotte owned the castle during her reign and maintained a close relationship with the village. On 26 May 1977, Grand Duke Jean sold the castle and the surrounding land to the state for 22,000,000 francs. The sum was far less than the estate was worth and does not amount to much in modern currency.

Further details will be posted later.

Source: Vianden Castle 

Vianden Gala

The Italian Embassy in Luxembourg and Venetian Heritage organized a fund raising gala evening at Vianden Castle. Princess Sibilla is the International Chairwoman of Venetian Heritage. She attended the event with Prince Guillaume and Prince Jean. Members of the Belgian and Luxembourgish nobility were also in attendance.

The mission of the organization provides some clues about how the funds will be used. I found the following information on their website.
Venetian Heritage is a not-for-profit organization based in the United States, with offices in New York and Venice, and is part of the UNESCO Private Committees Program for the Safeguarding of Venice. The mission of Venetian Heritage is to encourage and support artistic and intellectual initiatives and cultural exchanges between the U.S. and Italy; to safeguard the Venetian cultural heritage as manifested in architecture, music, and the fine arts in the city itself and its former dominion; to sponsor exhibitions, lectures and conferences intended to stimulate a world-wide interest in the urgent and never-ending needs of Venice.
You may also notice that Princess Sibilla is wearing the pearl and diamond choker similar to the one that belonged to Grand Duchess Josephine-Charlotte. The choker belonging to the Grand Duchess was one of the jewels nearly auctioned several years ago.

Sources: RevueVenetian HeritageVenetian Heritage Facebook

The Beatification of Pope John Paul II **

On 1 May, Divine Mercy Sunday, The Holy Mass of Beatification for Pope John Paul II will take place in St. Peter's Square. Various media outlets have stated that more than 2,000,000 pilgrims are expected flock to The Vatican. Among the pilgrims will be dozens of Catholic royals and nobles.

Luxemburger Wort reports that The Grand Ducal Couple, The Hereditary Grand Duke and Prince Louis will attend the events surrounding the Holy Mass and Beatification.

I wouldn't be shocked to see Princess Marie-Astrid and Princess Margaretha also in attendance, since the Cour Grand-Ducale rarely comments on their considerable activities.

The family also attended Mass at The Vatican during Easter weekend.

Hotel rates in Rome for the weekend are even higher than those in London for the royal wedding. Most of the hotels in Rome have been booked solid since the date was confirmed.

Welcome Additions...


I'm sure that most of you have noticed that I have been very slack about posting news over the past few months. My natural laziness combined with personal commitments made it difficult to always update in a timely fashion. I fell tragically behind on the news. 

Sydney, Daniela and Fleur joined the team earlier this month. Thanks to their hard work and stellar writing we are now pretty much caught up. You may have noticed their names in the fine print at the end of their postings. They have contributed 16 wonderful articles to the blog. 

Please join me in welcoming them to the team. I appreciate all of their hard work!!

Friday, April 22, 2011

About holidays and Dingos

While Prince Guillaume, his wife Princess Sibilla and their children, together with the Duke and Duchess of Brabant and their children, spent their Easter holiday in Spain (pictures can be found here and here), Grand Duke Jean received the chief of the Luxembourgish army as well as other representatives of the armed forces at Château de Fischbach.

Already in December the newly purchased tanks - so no; no cute but rather dangerous wild Australian animals - called Dingo 2 were presented to the current Grand Duke and now it was time to present them to the former head of state. In my humble opinion, it was a nice gesture to conveniently bring the tanks to the Château were Grand Duke Jean lives, so he did not need to travel to wheresoever the tanks are based.

Sources: Wort, Cour Grand-Ducale, Lëtzebuerger Arméi

Thursday, April 21, 2011

It's a boy!!


On 19 April 2011, Archduchess Marie-Christine of Austria and her husband Count Rodolphe de Limburg-Stirum became parents of a healthy son named Léopold.

Count Léopold is the first grandchild of Princess Marie-Astrid of Luxembourg and Archduke Carl-Christian of Austria. The little Count is the third great-grandson of Grand Duke Jean of Luxembourg.

Congratulations!

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

London Calling...

The Grand Duke and The Grand Duchess will attend the wedding of  Prince William of Wales and Catherine Middleton.

The Cour Grand-Ducale confirmed their attendance at the request of Luxemburger Wort. The Cour did not release any further details. Wort noted that they did not provide details of any additional members of The Family attending. Given the scope of the invitations to the other royal houses, I wouldn't really expect anyone other than Henri and Maria Teresa.

Source: Luxemburger Wort 

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Double Birthday!

Today is the 56th birthday of The Grand Duke and the 19th birthday of his youngest child, Prince Sébastien.

Henri is cruising toward his 11th year as Grand Duke with integrity. He recently returned to duty after undergoing an emergency coronary angioplasty earlier this year.

Prince Sébastien recently completed his secondary education at the International School of Luxembourg. It is unknown if he will take a gap year or proceed directly to university. Perhaps he may even become the 6th grandson of Grand Duke Jean to attend RMA Sandhurst.

Sadly, the Cour Grand-Ducale has not released any new pictures or updated biographical information to mark the occasion. Prince Sébastien's official biography is outdated.

My fellow bloggers and I wish The Grand Duke and The Prince well on their birthday.

Wort, RTL

Thursday, April 14, 2011

HGD Guillaume at The Bridge Forum Dialogue

Yesterday, a conference focusing on the question "A world without oil?" took place in Kirchberg, a quarter in the city of Luxembourg that is home to many different institutions of the European Union, and the Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume was one of the attendees.

Somehow resembling Félix a lot more than usual, Guillaume participated in the conference organised by The Bridge Forum Dialogue, an organisation that aims to link the Luxembourg-based parts of the European Union and Luxembourgs financial, legal and economic life.

Interestingly and probably not entirely coincidental, the logo of The Bridge Forum Dialogue resembles a bridge named after Guillaume's great grandmother Grand Duchess Charlotte a lot. The Grand Duchess Charlotte Bridge, nicknamed Rout Bréck (Red Bridge) because of its colour, links Kirchberg with downtown Luxembourg. Therefore, it symbolises the purpose of the Forum Dialogue.

Sources: Cour Grand-Ducale (photo of Guillaume), Wikimedia Commons (photo of Grand Duchess Charlotte Bridge)

Monday, April 11, 2011

Princess Sibilla in Germany



Last weekend, on April 9th, Princess Sibilla, who is a member of the European Museum Academy, made her way to Dortmund, Germany. There she presented both the Micheletti Award to the Staatliches Textil-und Industriemuseum Augsburg, a museum for textile and industry in the Bavarian city of Augsburg, as well as the EMA-Award to the Galileo Museo in Florence, Italy.


Sources: Emsdettener Volkszeitung

Sunday, April 10, 2011

The Grand Duke back on duty


After his illness earlier this year, The Grand Duke Henri is back on duty. On April 7th, he received an audience of American and Luxembourgish members of the Luxembourg American Cultural Society. The LACS was founded in 2004 by both people of Luxembourgish descent living in the United States, as well as citizens of the Grand Duchy to preserve Luxembourgish heritage and culture in America. The Grand Duke acts as a patron for the organization, as well as a Cultural Center situated in Belgium, Wisconsin.

The reason for the visit of the members of the LACS was the opening of the Cultural Center a few months ago. After three years of construction time, the Cultural Center was officially opened in August 2010. Among the visitors for the opening were the Luxembourgish culture secretary Octavie Modert and the Luxembourgish ambassador to the United States, Jean-Paul Senninger. Now it was the time to introduce the Cultural Centre, which, among other things, contains a Roots and Leaves Museum and a research center, to the general Luxembourgish public. You may also remember that the Grand Duke and three of his sons visited the center in 2009. After the audience with Grand Duke Henri, an information evening in Niederanven took place.

Sources: LACS, Wort, my wort, Cour Grand-Ducale

Friday, April 8, 2011

Guillaume at Centre Osterbour


Yesterday, on April 7th, The Hereditary Grand Duke had a meeting with various young people who are participating in a program called Jeunesse en Action. For people between the age of 13 and 30, this program, among others of the Service National de la Jeunesse, offers the chance to voluntarily work on different projects in a freely selectable foreign country, or even Luxembourg itself, to get to know another culture and broaden one's horizon. The program also supports young people coming to Luxembourg to voluntarily work there. While their work is unpaid, the young people coming to Luxembourg, are funded by the Luxembourgish government. Last year about 150 people participated in such a program in Luxembourg.

In the course of further training for the volunteers, which took place at a youth hostel in Larochette, Guillaume got to know more about the program and four former, current and future participants of Jeunesse en Action told about their experiences and expectations.

Many more pictures are available on the website of Manuel Dias.

Sources: Wort, L'essentiel, my wort, CGD, SNJ