Cover Royals

The newest edition of French magazine Point de Vue features two royals on its cover, Grand Duke Henri and Grand Duchess Maria-Teresa. Titled "A Week With the Sovereign Couple", the magazine includes a lengthy interview with the Grand Duchess about her engagements, causes dear to her heart, the Luxembourgish art scene, leaving a home (Cuba) and finding a new one (Luxembourg), her relationship with the Hereditary Grand Duchess who she describes as "bright, balanced and easy-going", her delightment that her children still make sure to spend parts of their holidays with their mum and dad, and much more.

The about 20-page coverage about Luxembourg also includes an article about Muriel Prieur, curator of the Grand Ducal Family's jewellery, silver treasury and other collections, and her work, cook Léa Linster, as well as the Château de Berg and how it gets ready to host important guests.

Party at the Palais

Photo: Fotomanufaktur Grünwald / Stiftung Fürst Liechtenstein

"APT Hosts an Evening Fit For Royalty", reports Global Travel Media and where there is an evening fit for royalty, a prince shouldn't be too far away. That prince came in the form of His Serene Highness Prince Constantin of Liechtenstein who personally welcomed a number of travel agents at the Princely Family's Stadtpalais in Vienna for a soiree hosted by APT. While I'm fairly uncertain, I guess the event took place earlier tonight as the above website already claims that it is April 11th while it is still April 10th in Austria.

Source: Global Travel Media

Friday Flashback (on a Thursday): Celebrating Birthdays

Today, Princess Tatjana of Liechtenstein a.k.a. Tatjana von Lattorff, only daughter of Prince Hans-Adam II and Princess Marie, is celebrating her 41st birthday. On August 13th, 1977, the young princess, who was wearing an adorable miniature version of a traditional Liechtenstein national costume, her parents, her three brothers and her grandfather were in Planken for some advance celebrations of Prince Franz Josef II's birthday.

Back in Luxembourg

Photo: Guy Jallay / Luxemburger Wort / Wort.lu

Seems like Prince Félix is busy at work promoting his - well, his father-in-law's or wife's, really* - wines. Last night he was in at the Threeland Hotel in the Luxembourgish town of Pétange where he presented the Château les Crostes' wines at an event organised by a Bascharage wine merchant called Gutt Drauf. The event was attended by some 400 guests.

More pictures are located at Wort in German, Wort in French and Wort in English.

[* The Château les Crostes is owned by German millionaire Hartmut Lademacher, the father of Princess Claire. Back when we wrote a Luxarazzi 101 about Claire and her family, he was the sole owner of the property. Sometime prior to the wedding, Claire was made a co-owner by her father. Since their wedding in September last year, Prince Félix and Princess Claire have been calling the château their home.]

Source: Wort

Luxarazzi 101: Grand Duchess Maria-Ana's Pearl and Diamond Pin

Photos: Getty Images

With the grand ducal family having nothing on their agenda and the Principality otherwise occupied, it's probably going to be a rather quiet week and so, inspired by a post by the lovely Ella over at The Court Jeweller, we are going to have a look at another piece of jewellery owned by the Grand Ducal Family that has been in the family since at least 1921 when Grand Duchess Maria-Ana wore it for the wedding of her fourth daughter Princess Antonia to Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria.

Photo: Edouard Kutter

Said piece of jewellery worn by Grand Duchess Maria-Ana at the wedding consists of two large natural pearls which are attached to a string of diamond elements each. The right string has one more connecting diamond element and is thus a little longer. The two strings are held together by a small bow set with another few small diamonds. 

Presumably also in the early 1920's during a formal photo sitting with the court photographer of the time, Edouard Kutter, Grand Duchess Charlotte made good use of the pin by attaching it to a small necklace thus creating a sautoir-like effect. 

While the team of Luxarazzi hasn't yet spied the pearl and diamond pin on any pictures of the decades that followed, it has been worn by Grand Duchess Maria-Teresa a few times during the past few years. In 2006, the Grand Duchess adorned her dress for the 60th birthday dinner of King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden with the pin and few years later, in 2010 to be exact, she wore it on national day to add a bit of sparkle to her daytime outfit.

Friday Flashback (on a Tuesday): The Prince in the Background

Photo: Luxemburger Wort

44 years ago today at around 8:30am, Prince Felix died at the Château de Fischbach. Born as the 18th child of Duke Robert I of Parma, his mother was Infanta Maria-Antonia of Portugal, second wife of the Duke. After serving in the Austrian army during World War I, he married Grand Duchess Charlotte in 1919. The couple had six children, Grand Duke Jean; Princess Elisabeth, Duchess of Hohenberg; Princess Marie-Adélaïde, Countess Henckel von Donnersmarck; Princess Marie-Gabrielle, Countess Holstein til Ledreborg; Prince Charles; and Princess Alix, Princess of Ligne.

Long Time No See

Well, not really see this time either but read about it instead: The International Music Academy in the Principality of Liechtenstein, which was founded in November 2010, gave their annual gala concert this weekend and among the listeners was no other than the Principality's first lady, Princess Marie, who we haven't had an awful lot of news about this year so far. During the course of the concert, fourteen foundationers played compositions by Josef Gabriel Rheinberger, Frédéric Chopin and Robert Schumann.

Source: Vaterland, Volksblatt

My Palace Is My Home

Photo: Fotomanufaktur Grünwald / Stiftung Fürst Liechtenstein

A year after the reopening of the Stadtpalais Liechtenstein in Vienna, one of the Principality's newspaper did an interview with Prince Constantin, CEO of the Foundation Prince Liechtenstein which is the operating company of the palace. Volksblatt also offers an online article about the interview. 

In short, Prince Constantin says that the utilisation concept of the Stadtpalais of only offering guided tours on selected Fridays each month and otherwise renting out the palace for events is a good one. This way the Princely Family's former Viennese city home does not compete with Vienna's numerous other museums but is instead carving out its own niche as a private home being opened for special occasions. The youngest son of Prince Hans-Adam II also reveals that his favourite room of the palace is the ball room and that he most likes the paintings of Friedrich von Ammerling and Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller. (Good choices by his serene highness, I must add; I also love the paintings of Ammerling.)

Source: Volksblatt

Sisters Out and About

Photo: Order of Malta

It's been a while since we last saw everyone's favourite Liechtenstein sisters, Princess Maria-Anunciata and Princess Marie-Astrid, out and about. If I recall correctly, the last time was that polo charity match they attended together with Princess Claire and it seems the princesses like themselves some charity as they were members of the honorary committee of the Order of Malta International Games 2014 which took place back in January. (I know, this news coverage is a bit late but better later the never, right? Right.)

The International Games take place every two years and are organised by the Sovereign Military Order of Malta as a fundraising initiative to support humanitarian activities. If you look past the (misspelled) princesses names on the list of members of the honorary and executive committees, you will see a number of other illustrious names such as Laurent de Belgique, Ernstie Hannover, Albert Thurn und Taxis, Ali Hohenzollern, Peter Lobkowicz, Marie-Christine of Kent, Hugo and Sophie Windisch-Graetz, Emanuele Filiberto di Savoia, a few Fürsenbergs and more. 

While I cannot find any photographic evidence of their attendance this year, turns out that the daughters of Prince Nikolaus and Princess Margaretha have been among the participants in the past. While checking out their website, I found pictures of previous years and noticed at least Princess Anunciata on them. (The one above is actually from 2009.)

Source: Sovereign Military Order of Malta

Missed Last Week: More News From Liechtenstein

Photo: Nils Vollmar / Liechtensteiner Volksblatt / Volksblatt.li

Already last week, on March 27th to be exact, and wholly missed by moi, the 9th Unternehmertag, which literally means entrepreneur day, took place in Vaduz. Among the guests were pretty much all of Liechtenstein's political elite, member of the Swiss Federal Council Doris Leuthard as well as Hereditary Prince Alois.

Galleries of picture including 88 and 39 visuals respectively are available at Volksblatt and Vaterland.

Source: Volksblatt