Visiting the European Parliament

While the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess are finishing up their state visit to Austria (more on that later), Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume and Hereditary Grand Duchess Stéphanie are currently visiting Strasbourg.

Photo: RTL

At about 10am this morning, they were greeted by the president of the parliament Martin Schulz who had invited them. Afterwards they went to the parliament to listen to a speech given by Irish president Michael D. Higgins, who is also currently visiting the town, and to witness a voting session. They rounded off their day by meeting Luxembourgish officials working in Strasbourg and have lunch with the six Luxembourgish members of the parliament.

A video of Stéphanie and Guillaume waiting and being greeted by Mr Schulz, signing the official guest book and chatting in German and French can be found on the website of the European Parliament. Pictures are located at RTL and on the website of the cour.


Source: Cour grand-ducale

State Visit to Austria - Day 2

Today, Grand Duke Henri and his youngest son Prince Sébastien are celebrating their respective birthdays. The Grand Duke got (at least) one cake from the Austrian Chamber of Commerce, so I hope that someone also baked something nice for Seb because turning 21 is a big deal in the United States were he is living at the moment.

The birthday boy who is currently statevisiting - I still think that should be a verb - Austria and his wife started their second day in Vienna with two meetings; at first they met Barbara Prammer, who is the as President of the National Council of Austria, and later the Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann.

Photo: Luc Deflorenne / SIP / Cour grand-ducale

Afterwards, they attended an Austro-Luxembourgish economic forum which was jointly organised by the two country's chamber of commerces as well as Luxembourg for Business and served as the central point of today's activities. After an official luncheon given by aforementioned Mrs Prammer at Epstein Palace, the Grand Duke and the Grand Duchess visited the Austrian National Library, which is home to about 7.4 million items.

Photo: Luc Deflorenne / SIP / Cour grand-ducale

Next up was a meeting with Yuri Fedotov, the Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime which is based in Vienna, before the Grand Ducal Couple attended the signing of partnership agreements between the University of Luxembourg and three Austrian universities in Vienna and Innsbruck. In his speech the Grand Duke underlined and thanked for the equality between Austrian and Luxembourgish students in Austria.

Photo: Pierre Matge / Tageblatt.lu

To round off the day, Grand Duke Henri and Grand Duchess Maria Teresa gave an official reception in honour of the Austrian presidential couple at the famous Albertina. Other guests included the head of the House of Habsburg, Archduke Karl of Austria also known as Karl Habsburg-Lothringen.

The Grand Duchess appears to be wearing everyone's beloved Elie Saab; she has the same or a very similar dress in blue that she wore at the incoming Dutch state visit last year. That's how you do it!

A news report about today's day activities can be found at RTL, pictures are available at the cour, Revue, Tageblatt, Getty Images and Wort. More pictures of meeting Mr Faymann are located on the website of the office of the federal chancellor.


Source: RTL, Gouvernement.lu

State Visit to Austria - Day 1 ***

After a proper send-off at Findel Airport in Luxembourg including saying goodbye to the government, lots of soldiers and bowing to the flag, Grand Duke Henri and Grand Duchess Maria Teresa as well as the delegation accompanying them flew to Vienna for their state visit. The plane ride entailed one of the most favourite parts of any state visit by your bloggers here at Luxarazzi, the air escort.

Photo: Pierre Matge / Tageblatt.lu

At the airport in the Austrian capital, the Grand Ducal Couple was greeted with military honours by the Bundesheer, the Austrian Armed Forces. They then made their way to the enormous Hofburg Palace, who once the home of the Habsburg rulers is now the official residence of the President of Austria. It was Heinz Fischer, the current one, to greet the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess upon their arrival. Together the two head of states inspected the guard of honour before moving inside to take a few pictures together with their wives.

Photo: Luxemburger Wort / Wort.lu

Afterwards, Mr. Fischer and Grand Duke Henri participated in a meeting that was also attended by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Jean Asselborn, and the Minister of Economy and Trade, Etienne Schneider as well as members of the Austrian government. Meanwhile, Grand Duchess Maria Teresa and Margit Fischer, the president's wife, took part in a discussion about the integration of immigrants and people living on the fringes of society in in a globalised world. The round table was attended by various NGO's working in this field.

To round off the morning, the Grand Duke viewed the Imperial Treasury, which is also located at the Hofburg. As the name suggests, the museum is home to both secular and ecclesiastical treasures compiled by the Habsburg family over the course of centuries, including the Imperial Crown, Orb, and Sceptre of Austria, as well as the Imperial Regalia of the Emperors and Kings of the Holy Roman Empire.

Photo: Luxemburger Wort / Wort.lu

After a private luncheon, the presenditial couple accompanied Grand Duke Henri and Grand Duchess Maria Teresa to a concert of the Wiener Sängerknaben. They sang a selection of eight songs. When the concert was over, the Grand Ducal Couple was gifted with two little teddy bears wearing the uniforms of the boys' choir that I'm sure will be appreciated by the couple's grandsons Gabriel and Noah or whoever gets them.

Photo: Luxemburger Wort / Wort.lu

Afterwards, the couple made their way to the Vienna city hall to be received by Michael Häuptl, the mayor of Vienna who is also the Landeshauptmann - I don't think there is an English term for that, it's the term for the chief executive of an Austrian state. At the town hall, they apparently received a couple of more gifts.

Photo: Luxemburger Wort / Wort.lu

In the evening, a state banquet was held at the Hofburg. The Grand Duke wore white tie together with the Decoration of Honour for Services to the Republic of Austria and the badge of the Order of the Gold Lion of the House of Nassau. Grand Duchess Maria Teresa wore what's probably Natan, the Belgian Scroll Tiara and the female version of the Austrian order.

Photo: Luc Deflorenne / SIP / Cour grand-ducale

I will keep my judgement about the Grand Duchess' attire largely to myself (well, I already aired it on other sources) because if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all... But, why in the world would you chose to wear just large, very obviously fake brooch-y ornamentation if you got the real deal at home?!

If you still haven't go enough, you can also check Wort for a few pictures of former state visits between Luxembourg and Austria to keep yourself occupied.

More pictures of today can be found at Wort, Tageblatt, L'essentiel, the cour grand-ducale, APA, Getty Images, SIPA and AFP, a news report is available at RTL.


Source: Gouvernement.lu

Cooking for the Grand Ducal Family

Since 1 February, the Grand Ducal Family has a new cook, whose name is Cédric Denolf. The 24 years old Belgian simply called the cour to put in an speculative application, little did he know that they were actually about to start searching for a new cook. A few days later he was called in for an interview and a week later his trial period started. Preparing dishes for lunch and dinner, he works at both the palais and the Château de Berg. The new cook describes the food at the Grand Duke's as "traditional cuisine yet revisited".


Source: La Meuse

90 Years of Concrete

Photo: Marc Wilwert / Luxemburger Wort / Wort.lu

On Friday afternoon, the concrete product producer Chaux de Contern celebrated its 90th anniversary and the Hereditary Grand Duke and the Hereditary Grand Duchess were on hand to celebrate with them. More information and a galleries of visuals can be found at Tageblatt, the cour grand-ducale and Wort.

Have a great weekend everyone!


Source: Tageblatt

Luxarazzi 101: Wedding of Grand Duke Jean and Grand Duchess Joséphine-Charlotte

Today is April 9th and this means that Grand Duke Jean and the late Grand Duchess Joséphine-Charlotte would have celebrated their diamond wedding jubilee today.

Some time in November 1953, a 26-year-old Princess Joséphine-Charlotte sat down on her father's lap to tell him that she had gotten engagement. "To whom?", asked the surprised King Leopold III of Belgium and his daughter smilingly answered "To Jean of Luxembourg."

Even though rumours of the engagement between the Belgian princess and the heir to the Luxembourgish throne instantly made it into the press, the public had to wait for an official announcement until December 26th. The young couple were frenetically celebrated by the Belgian crowds when they appeared on the balcony of the royal palace in Brussels. In the evening, a ball was held in honour of the newly engaged couple

Much has been made of the engagement of then Hereditary Grand Duke Jean and Princess Joséphine-Charlotte. It is usually said that their union was an arranged one; or at least heavily suggested by the fiancée's grandmother Queen Elisabeth of Belgium and the fiancé's mother Grand Duchess Charlotte, who coincidentally was also Joséphine-Charlotte's godmother.

News reports at the time speculated that one or both of them were in love with commoners who were considered unsuitable marriage choices. Wherever the truth lies, Jean and Joséphine-Charlotte had known each other for most of their lives and had struck up a friendship.

Even though the press and society in general is usually quick to conclude that an arranged marriage can only be loveless and miserable, their marriage was by all accounts a happy one and many sources claim that they did eventually fall in love with each other. No one will probably ever forget the grief-stricken tears of Grand Duke Jean at his wives funeral many years later.

Soon after the engagement was made public, the royal courts announced that the wedding would take place on April 9th at the Cathédrale Notre Dame in Luxembourg City.

Two days before on April 7th, tens of thousands of Belgians turned up at the royal palace in Brussels to wish their princess all the best. She appeared on the balcony to greet the cheering masses. Together with her family she then travelled by train from Belgium to Luxembourg on April 8th.

Hereditary Grand Duke Jean met the special royal train at the border and greeted his soon to be wife with a kiss before the train rode on into the city of Luxembourg. Once again, thousands of well-wishers welcomed the Belgian princess in her new country. In the evening hours, a ball was held at the palais grand-ducal.

On April 9th, Hereditary Grand Duke Jean and Princess Joséphine-Charlotte were firstly married in a civil ceremony at the palais by mayor Emile Hamilius, before making their way to the cathedral for the religious wedding.

Despite light rain, Jean and Joséphine-Charlotte travelled in an open carriage. About 100.000 to 140.000 well-wishers lined the streets, a number twice as high as had been expected. Many of them had made the (rather short) way from Belgium. In fact so many Belgians visited the Grand Duchy for the weekend that the Luxembourgish government asked the citizens to open their own homes to the guests as all hotels were booked months in advance. The streets were decorated with flowers and flags of both Belgium and Luxembourg.

Photo: DPA

While Joséphine-Charlotte was let to the alter on the arm of her father, the former King Leopold III of Belgium, Jean was accompanied by his mother, Grand Duchess Joséphine-Charlotte. Prince Alexandre of Belgium, Joséphine-Charlotte’s younger half-brother and godson, carried the train of her white organza dress.

The high collared and ruffled dress was made of two layers seperated by white tulle. The train was about four meters long and made of handmade needlepoint and pillow Brussels lace. Her veil was also made of Belgian lace. During the actual wedding ceremony Joséphine-Charlotte wore the Congo Diamond Necklace Tiara, later she opted to change into the Belgian Scroll Tiara for the official wedding pictures.

Jean wore the olive green uniform of the Luxembourgish army as well as the Luxembourgish Order of the Gold Lion of House of Nassau and the Belgian Order of Leopold.

Not only the Luxembourgish sky was clouded on the wedding day. Joséphine-Charlotte's teary mood and (almost) fainting is often attributed to the (apparent) fact that the wedding wasn't a love match. It later surfaced that other problems had been lingering over the occassion.

As you may know, Princess Joséphine-Charlotte had lost her mother, the beloved Queen Astrid, at a very young age when she tragically died in a car accident. The widowed King Leopold III married the Belgian commoner Mary Lilian Baels during the Second World War. The wedding wasn't too well received by the Belgian public.

Through her marriage she automatically had become a Princess of Belgium but the question of her right of precedence remained. Princess Lilian had apparently insisted of taking the place of the bride's mother but was disputed by Queen Elisabeth, the mother of King Leopold III. In the end, Queen Elisabeth entered the church on the arm of Prince Felix, husband of Grand Duchess Charlotte, and Princess Lilian was placed eight.

Appearing shaky, pale and nervous during the religious ceremony, the long fighting - which had resulted in Queen Elisabeth travelling to Luxembourg seperately - is said to have been despairing the bride, who confused the order of responses to her vows, began crying and almost fainted during the service. During the whole service, Jean tried to console his bride and repeatedly asked if everything was alright.

After the service was over, the newly wed couple made their way back to the palais in an open carriage even though in now rained quite heavily. Joséphine-Charlotte seemed revived and smiled happily but reportedly fainted some time later on. The couple appeared on the balcony at the palais, where a reception for more than 700 guests took place, a few times. Due to the bride's indisposition their honeymoon to the Mediterranean was cancelled and Jean and Joséphine-Charlotte spent their time in the lovely Grand Duchy instead.

Belated News

Finding news on the extended Grand Ducal Family can be like looking for a needle in a haystack called internet sometimes. So we often do so with a delay; sometimes it's weeks, sometimes even months but as I'm sure that many of our readers are interested anyway, here we go...

Le Bal des Débutantes, held at the Hôtel de Crillon in Paris, is as famous for its fashions as it is for being a get-together for the rich and famous. Since 1992 the ball has garnered an array of celebrity daughters as well as offspring of politicians and aristocrats to make their debut into society. On November 24th last year, it was time for a Luxembourgish prince to get in his tuxedo mode and be a cavalier.

Prince Carl, the youngest son of Prince Jean and his first wife Hélène Vestur, participated in le Bal by accompanying Eliza Moncreiffe, the daughter of The Hon. Peregrine Moncreiffe of that Ilk, baron of Easter Moncreiffe and Chief of the Scottish Clan Moncreiffe. You can spot Carl almost hidden behind another cavalier in this picture, he is the first on the left in the third row.

In more recent news on February 19th, Prince Carl's cousin Princess Maria-Anunciata of Liechtenstein was out and about in Paris attending the opening of the exhibition organised on the occassion of the release of the book "Calder by Matter". The art exhibition  included over thirty works by Herbert Calder, including mobiles, stabiles, bronzes, decorative objects, gouaches and photographs. A picture of Anunciata can be found on the website of Cahiers d'Art, no spotting ability required this time.

And as a last point no news but a thanks to my and your fellow Luxaholic Iza, who keeps finding these awesome news of the extended family by looking through the haystack with me. Have I told you lately how amazing you are?!


Source: le Bal, Cahiers d'Art

Coming Up: State Visit to Austria

A while ago it was announced that Grand Duke Henri and Grand Duchess Maria Teresa would be visiting Austria between 15 April and 17 April, now further plans were released. The couple will be accompanied by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Jean Asselborn and Minister of Economy and Trade Étienne Schneider.

Various political, economic, social and cultural meetings are planned for the time the Grand Ducal Couple stays in Vienna. The Grand Duke and Grand Duchess are in Austria at the invitation of the federal president Heinz Fischer.

Besides the usual state visiting stuff like state banquets and meetings with politicians, the Grand Ducal Couple will be visiting the Schatzkammer and a concert of the Wiener Sängerknaben on the first day.

On the second day they will attend an Austro-Luxembourgish economic forum organised for the occassion, meet with the Executive Director of the United Nations Office against Drugs and Crime as well as different Austrian associations to discuss the integration of immigrants in a globalsed world. They will also be visiting the national library to explore Luxembourg's and Austria's common history.

On the third day, the Grand Duke and the Grand Duchess will be visiting two companies in Linz, the capital of the state of Upper Austria, the Abbey of Melk, one of the the world's most famous monastic sites, and the concentration camp in Mauthausen to honour Luxembourgish victims who died there during the Nazi era.


Source: CGD

Luxarazzi 101: Château de Fischbach

Château de Fischbach, Schloss Fischbach or Schlass Fëschbech – depending which of Luxembourg’s three official languages you prefer – is located close to the town of Fischbach in Central Luxembourg.

The Fischbach estate is one of the oldest in the country. Originally owned by the Abbey of Echternach, it first non-religious owner was Udo of Fischbach, who bought the castle in 1050. In the following centuries, the castle undertook various renovations and alterations while the ownership changed a couple of times.

The Château de Fischbach in 1834

The Lords of Fischbach fought in the Battle of Worringen, one of the largest battles in Europe during the Middle Ages, in 1288. The estate belonged to the family until 1466, when the heiress Angèle of Fischbach married Henri de Boland, Lord of Rollé and Esch-sur-Sûre.

When the new owners of the estate died out in 1571, it passed to Bernard II of Orley, Lord of Linster and Meysembourg. In 1628, François de Cassal, a man of Wallonian nobility ennobled in 1644 by King Philip IV of Spain, bought parts of the castle.

In 1635, during the Thirty Year War, the castle was burned down by the Polish of the army of Duke François of Lorraine. The reconstruction of the central building by Count Edmond of Schwarzenberg was completed three years later. In 1674, the descendants of François de Cassal purchased the parts of the castle that did not belong to them yet.

Sometime later the castle was acquired by Auguste Garnier, industrial and metallurgist. He granted the ownership to the S.A. Belge des Hauts Fourneaux and in 1768 a blast furnace and a smithy were built on the estate. He was the last non-royal owner of the castle.

Much like the Château de Berg, King-Grand Duke William II bought the Château de Fischbach to regain control over Luxembourg and to placate its population after the Belgian Revolution in 1847. He immediately commanded that the furnaces erected by Garnier should be demolished.

The castle during the 1980's

In 1884 Duke Adolph of Nassau, who six years later would become Grand Duke of Luxembourg, bought the castle from his Dutch cousin King-Grand Duke William III.

During the Second World War the Nazis took over the castle and made it into a home for artists calling it Künstlerheim Fischbach. Much like it happened to other residences of the Grand Ducal Family, the majority of furniture and art were stolen and sold during that time.

When Grand Duchess Charlotte returned to Luxembourg in 1945, the Château de Fischbach was the only inhabitable castle in her possession and thus she moved into the castle with her family. Even after the restorations of her other residences were finished, she chose to stay at the castle out of personal preference. Until his death in 1977 Prince Charles and his family lived together with his parents in the castle, as did his sister Princess Elisabeth and her daughters for many years.

The Château de Fischbach in 2000 (Photo: Tom Wagner)

Two years after Grand Duchess Charlotte had died in 1985, then Hereditary Grand Duke Henri and Hereditary Grand Duchess Maria-Teresa moved into the castle; it is where their five children spent the majority of their childhood until the family moved into the Château de Berg in 2002. Smaller family occassions such as christenings and first communions usually took place at the castle and the parish church of the village nearby.

The same year Grand Duke Jean and Grand Duchess Joséphine-Charlotte moved into the Château de Fischbach. In 2005, the Grand Duchess died of lung cancer at the castle surrounded by her family. Grand Duke Jean’s sister Princess Elisabeth spent the last years of her life at the castle where she died in November 2011.

Pro-Life in Brussels

Recently on March 24th, Archduchess Kathleen, the American-born daughter-in-law of Princess Marie-Astrid, participated in the 4th Annual March for Life in the Belgian capital Brussels and wrote an article about it.

One of the main aims of this year's march was to protest against the proposed changes in the laws regarding euthanasia. In late 2002, the Belgian parliament legalised euthanasia for people over the age of 18. Now, a new law has been proposed to expand the law to minors and people suffering from Alzheimer's-type illnesses.

The wife of Archduke Imre has long been involved in the pro-life movement. Prior to her wedding she worked as the communications director for the Catholic Charities of the Arlington Virginia Diocese and was a member of the board of the Catholic Business Network of Northern Virginia. One of the most asked questions around the wedding was if she would continue with her work and it seems that she does.

[Just a quick note: To be perfectly honest, the team of Luxarazzi was a little hesitant to post about these news as we are aware of the strong feelings some people have about Archduchess Kathleen and this matter in general. Nonetheless, everyone should keep in mind that every person is entitled to their own opinion so if you have a comment please be thought- and respectful. Treat others like you want to be treated! (And yes, I feel strange for having to say this because it should be a given.)]


Source: AFP, LifeSiteNews.com