Luxembourg's Downton Abbey and Other News

The Château de Fischbach during the 1980's

Let's start with the "other news"... Between October 2 and October 6 the 7th EMAS (Europe, Medtierranean & Arab States) Regional conference of the Mérite Jeunesse took place in Luxembourg. The Mérite Jeunesse, which is placed under the high patronage of Grand Duke Jean, is a member of the Duke of Edinburgh's International Award Association. Prince Guillaume, who is the president of the board of the Luxembourgish branch of the association, participated in the conference on at least three days - or at least I have seen pictures of him in three different outfits and outfit changes during the day aren't a very male thing to do, are they!? Check out here, here and here to convince yourself of my observation.

Turning to Downton Abbey... You might remember that we recently mentioned that Domaine Clarence Dillon was about to have a big auction in Asia -- if not, have a look here -- and on the occasion, Prince Robert, the Grand Duke's cousin, gave a little interview to Sotheby's blog, in which he also talked about growing up in Luxembourg.

"Where were you born? 
I was born at our family home, the Château de Fischbach in Luxembourg. 

What was your best memory growing up? 
I loved the castle, a beautiful house in an idyllic and bucolic setting overlooking woods, farmland and the small village. We lived with my parents, grandparents, one aunt and two cousins. Family and guests visited often and stayed in the house with us. It was wonderful to be so close to my grandmother, the Grand Duchess Charlotte, and other members of our extended family. The atmosphere was akin to a mini Downton Abbey, but without all of the pomp and grandeur. Our lifestyle was very simple and down to earth, but with a permanent staff and infrastructure that are now part of a bygone era."

The aunt and cousins Prince Robert is talking about are Princess Elisabeth, Duchess of Hohenberg and her two daughters Princess Anita and Princess Sophie who lived seperated from Duke Franz of Hohenberg in Luxembourg. For a few more details on the prince's private life, have a look at the full interview here. In case you'd like to learn more about Luxembourg's Downton Abbey, check this out.


Sources: Wort, Sotheby's

Royal Meeting in Brussels

Photo: Getty Images

Well, it wasn't a royal meeting per se but a bunch of royals, namely Grand Duchess Maria-Teresa, Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden, Princess Astrid of Belgium and Princess Margriet of the Netherlands, turned up to attend a meeting of the Honorary Council of the International Paralympic Olympic Committee that all those ladies are members of at the Royal Palace earlier today. Getty Images, Belga and likely a whole lot of other news agencies have more pictures of the event. For more information about the meeting, have a look at the website of the IPC.

Source: IPC

Another Take on the Mérode / Oultremont Wedding *

Photos: Sabine Brauer Photos

Because weddings are so beautiful, there is no harm in having another look at Saturday's noble wedding of Princess Marguerite de Mérode and Count Philippe d'Oultremont - this time with pictures! As media reports indicated, Grand Duchess Maria-Teresa was indeed among the guests for the nuptials taking place in Wenau near the Mérode family's castle in Germany. Not very surprising but very nice to see, Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume, Hereditary Grand Duchess Stéphanie, Prince Louis, Princess Tessy and Princess Alexandra were also among the guests. 

I think I can also spy Princess Maria-Anunciata of Liechtenstein in the back of one of the pics but am not quite sure. Interestingly it seems that the Grand Duchess changed clothes between the wedding and the reception taking place at Schloss Merode afterwards.

Brauer Photos has a small selection of their pictures viewable for the public. Sadly not many and only as thumbnails but it gives me great hope that some German magazines will also cover the wedding in their next issues, so stay tuned for more possible Luxembourg and Liechtenstein guests at the wedding.

Source: Sabine Brauer Photos

Musical Competition in Liechtenstein

Photo: Privat via MeinBezirk.at

Already on September 28 and wholly unnoticed by the press it seems, the Internationaler Rheinberger Wettbewerb für Orgel -- Is it me or is that a little bit of weird German right there?! Anyhoo, it's International Rheinberger Organ Competition for you non-German speakers. -- took place in Vaduz and Hereditary Princess Sophie was on hand to hand out the prizes. 

Josef Gabriel Rheinberger was a Liechtenstein-born organist and composer who was appointed court conductor of King Ludwig II of Bavaria in 1877, so who better to be the patron of the week-long event than Liechtenstein's very own Bavarian duchess. The competition ended with a concert at the St. Florin cathedral in Vaduz followed by a reception and award ceremony attended by the Hereditary Princess on Saturday last week.

Source: MeinBezirk.at, Rheinberger Wettbewerb

Coming Up: State Visit to Turkey

Grand Duke Henri and Grand Duchess Maria-Teresa will be state visiting Turkey later this year. The visit will take place between November 20 and 22. 

While I'm a little unsure about all the details, I can tell you that the Grand Duke is scheduled to attend an economic and financial seminar at the Çırağan Palace in Istanbul on the 21st and that there will be a reception in the presence of Grand Duke Henri and Grand Duchess Maria-Teresa on the same day at the same venue. I'm assuming that the couple will also visit Ankara, Turkey's capital, to meet with some politicians.

Source: Luxembourg for Finance

Remembering Grand Duchess Joséphine-Charlotte

Photo: Vic Fischbach / Cour grand-ducale

On Friday night, an annual concert in honour of the late Grand Duchess Joséphine-Charlotte was held at the philharmonic hall in Luxembourg. Grand Duke Jean, who was accompanied by his daughter Archduchess Marie-Astrid of Austria as well as his grandson Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume and his wife Hereditary Grand Duchess Stéphanie, was among the guests for the concert by the Orchestre de Paris under the direction of Paavo Järvi. The orchestra performed Claude Debussy's Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune, Béla Bartók's Concerto pour piano et orchestre N° 3, Igor Stravinsky's Symphony in Three Movements as well as the Boléro by Maurice Ravel.

Source: Place Royale, Philharmonie Luxembourg

Belgian Noble Wedding in Germany

Photo: Hannes Schmitz / Aachener Nachrichten

In much quieter fashion than the royal wedding in the Netherlands, Princess Marguerite de Mérode married Count Philippe d'Oultremont at the old monastic church in Wenau, a small village between Aachen and Cologne, yesterday. Princess Marguerite is the fifth and youngest child of Prince Charles-Louis de Mérode and his wife née Countess Clotilde d'Oultremont (of another branch of the family than her new son-in-law, just to make that clear). The groom is the only child of Count Arnould d'Oultremont and his wife née Countess Isabelle d'Aspreont-Lynden.

With such an illustrious family background, it is not surprising that there were quite a few other nobles and royals in attendance. Even though there are no pictures (yet -- I'm hoping for Point de Vue and L'Eventail here), I can tell you that according to advance media reports, Grand Duchess Maria Teresa as well as princes of Liechtenstein were supposed to attend the wedding. All in all, there were about 500 guests including members of the Orléans, Ligne and Lobkowicz families.

After the religious wedding in Wenau, the party made their way to Schloss Merode, which is only a stone's throw away, for the reception. Firstly mentioned in 1174, it is the ancestral seat of the family by the same name who were made princes of the Belgian nobility in 1929; before they were counts of Mérode. The castle is owned by the bride's father, Prince Charles-Louis, and the place were Princess Marguerite, who wore a dress by an Aachen-based designer for her wedding, and her siblings grew up.

By the way, I don't think that the Grand Duchess was the only member of the Luxembourg family to attend the wedding. For Marguerite's older sister Blanche's wedding with Baron Philipp of Bodman two years ago, there was a whole array of Grand Ducal guests including the Hereditary Grand Duke, Prince Félix, Princess Claire, Prince Louis and Princess Tessy as well as Archduke Imre, Princess Maria-Anunciata and Princess Marie-Astrid (and those were only the ones we saw pictures of).  Princess Blanche also is a good friend of Hereditary Grand Duchess Stéphanie and one of the witnesses at last October's wedding. So, let's keep our fingers crossed that some pictures will come up somewhere at some point in time, preferably soon.

Source: Aachener Nachrichten

A Story of Supposed Events

Prince Constantin was supposed to attend the international forum "together we are stronger" by the charitable foundation Football Is More that he is the president of. The third son of Prince Hans-Adam II was scheduled to give the opening speech for the event that dealt with the topic of "how the football, a truly world sport, using its charisma as a versatile platform for social engagement can create role models and serve as a role model" and featured a bunch of high profile speakers from the world of football (or soccer if you are American). I, however, can't seem to locate him on the official picture, so whether he was actually in attendance at the event held in Bad Ragaz, Switzerland isn't quite sure.

Meanwhile in Luxembourg, Grand Duke Henri and Grand Duchess Maria Teresa were also supposed to attend an event yesterday but likewise, there is no photographic evidence of them being actually present. The Société Générale Bank and Trust celebrated their 120th anniversary at the Centre Drosbach and according to the agenda of the cour the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess were supposed to attend an academic session and reception to mark the occasion. -- They did indeed.

Source: VSport, FIM, CGD

International Day of the Older Persons

Photo: Elma Korac / Liechtensteiner Vaterland / Vaterland.li

In case you kinda missed it -- I don't blame you, I did too. -- yesterday was the International Day of the Older Persons and on that occasion someone had organised some event that took place in Liechtenstein's biggest municipality Schaan and was attended by Princess Marie. 

As you have probably guessed by now, I'm not too sure on the details apart from the fact that Reinhold Harringer of St. Gallen, Switzerland gave a speech during the event in which the president of the Stiftung Zeitvorsorge, which would literally translate to Time Provision Foundation, talked about a pilot experiment currently tried out in his hometown that features a concept of working for the elderly when you are young and thus gaining a plus on a time account that you can use up again when you are old yourself. Sounds interesting but sadly I can't tell you more but that is all the info Vaterland's article includes.

Source: Vaterland

Luxembourg Royals in Turkey

Photo: HT Kulüp

Prince Guillaume and Princess Sibilla are currently on a visit to Turkey for a meeting of the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) Charitable Trust. The Grand Duke's brother is a member of the general assembly of the Charitable Trust which has the aim of raising funds for the activities of the EORTC, to support the structure of the organisation as well as independent academic research projects. Other royals in attendance for the event were the prince's cousin Princess Astrid of Belgium, who is the honorary president of the EORTC Charitable Trust, and her husband Prince Lorenz. For a few more visuals, check out HT Kulüp.

Source: EORTC, HT Kulüp