Marie of Romania in 1936, by Philip de László
Queen Marie of Romania’s heart has been in the Natural Museum of Romanian History since 1971 in a silver box. Now, it’s finally going home to Pelisor Castle which she loved and where she lived and died on 18 July 1938 at 5.38 PM, 8 minutes after lapsing into a coma. The silver casket will be placed on a plinth behind the couch on which she passed away.
The heart inside its silver casket will be transferred from the Natural Museum of Romanian History to Pelisor Castle on 3 November in a procession.
Marie, herself would have preferred to have her heart laid to rest in a specifically built chapel in Balchik, now a part of Bulgaria. Balchik was also the home of Marie’s favourite summer residence. When the region was returned to Bulgaria in the 1940s the family was forced to move the heart to Bran Castle.
The chapel at Bran Castle was desecrated during the communist regime and a second move was necessary. The heart was then placed in the Museum, where it was kept in the basement and not on public display. As putting the heart back in the chapel at Balchik is impossible the family requested it to be moved to ‘where the heartbeat for the last time.’
Marie of Romania was born in 1875 as Princess Marie of Edinburgh, and she was a granddaughter of Queen Victoria through her son Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh. She became Queen of Romania as the wife of Ferdinand I and they would have six children, including Carol II of Romania. She never lived to see her grandson Michael abdicate the Romanian throne.
You can read more about Marie of Romania in Burying a Queen’s Heart – Queen Marie of Romania here on Royal Central.
Photo Credit: Marie of Romania in 1936 in the Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.
