Friday, February 2, 2018

BULLETIN: Margareta and royal family to remain at Elisabeta Palace


@Casa Regale

The Romanian Royal House and the Romanian government have reached a temporary arrangement regarding the Elisabeta Palace in Bucharest.

HM Margareta and Prince Radu will continue to live at the palace and will pay a monthly rent to the government.

A final decision regarding the palace will be made after Parliament votes on the Statue of the Royal house.  No date for this vote has been set.

The decision regarding Elisabeta Palace will be made by the government, however.    The president of the Chamber of Deputies, Liviu Dragnea, who supports the legislation, said late Thursday that the new Prime Minister  Viorica Dăncilă has a more pleasant view on allowing HM Margareta and her family to continue to live at the palace, at least for the time being.

https://www.romania-insider.com/romanian-royal-family-rent-elisabeta-palace/

http://evz.ro/casa-regala-palatul-elisabeta.html

https://www.telegrafonline.ro/casa-regala-ramane-in-palatul-elisabeta

From the Royal Family's official website:  I used Google translate

http://www.familiaregala.ro/stiri/articol/de-ce-are-palatul-elisabeta-insemnatate-in-anii-nostri

Why does Elisabeth Palace have a meaning in our years?
01/29/2018

Princess Elizabeth of Romania, the first daughter of King Ferdinand and the Queen Maria, built in Bucharest, next to Herastrau Park and in the immediate vicinity of the Village Museum, a residence whose construction was entrusted to an architect aged just 24 years, Corneliu M. Marcu. The work began in 1935 and was completed in 1937. Nowadays, a bronze plate is placed on the outer wall of the entrance tower, to the left of the large wrought iron gates, and on the plate are indicated the years of construction, as and the year of the birth and death of the architect: 1911-1991. Daughter of architect Mark offered the Royal Family Gift in 2002, the plans and photographs of the construction that his father had kept in his office until the end of his life.

On the evening of August 23, 1944, the German army bombed and destroyed the New House, the residence of the sovereign, a modest, upstairs building behind the Royal Palace (where the Palace Hall is today). In September 1944, when returning from the secret home of the village of Dobrita (Gorj County), King Mihai and Queen Mother Elena moved to Elisabeta Palace, with the permission of the owner of the building, who had the generosity of making them available they are in Bucharest. His sovereign and mother remained here until the morning of December 31, 1947.

King Michael lived at Elisabeta Palace in days when he had official meetings in the capital. Otherwise, the sovereign stood at the Foisor Castle in Sinaia, where he had also private and official meetings, including Romanian politicians, increasingly hostile and inflexible, with a completely contradictory Soviet agenda to that of the sovereign. And free time he preferred to spend it all at Foisoare.

On December 30th, at 15 o'clock, King Michael was forced to sign his abdication in an upstairs room. After the visit of Petru Groza and Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, the king and his mother decided to stay at the palace that night, asked the civilian staff to go home, thinking that the life of the employees could be in danger, then took dinner and, the next morning in the last day of 1947, they took the road to Sinaia, with King Michael driving. None of them knew then whether or not they would ever see Elisabeta Palace or not. King Mihai and Queen Mother, who were in the Royal Train, left the country in Jimbolia on the night of 3 to 4 January 1948, after his Majesty had forcibly signed an abdication she had never recognized. At this point, the king would say later: "We went away with death in the soul."

During the communist regime, from 1948 to 1989, Elisabeta Palace was held closed for a number of years, then turned into a protocol house. Few official guests lived in the palace. A Communist employee recalled his accommodation in the official dormitories of King Juan Carlos I and Queen Sofia of Spain, as well as Eric Höneker, the German Communist leader.

Queen Mother died in Lausanne in 1982, when Romania was in a Ceausescu era, without having had a chance to return to Romania. King Michael stepped back to Elisabeta Palace for nearly five decades after leaving for exile on February 28, 1997, when the Victor Ciorbea Government invited him to live for five days at Elisabeth Palace. From the spring of 1997 until the spring of 2001, the Royal Family stayed several times at the Elisabeta Palace, paying their room, per night, as any hotel in the country.

On May 18, 2001, King Michael and Queen Ana came back home to Elisabeta Palace this time.

Two decades ago, the King returned to Elisabeta Palace to build Romania's irrevocable European foundation of tomorrow. The arrival of King Michael in his youth palace was not a late revenge of a man who had the destiny as the destiny. By the return of the King, Elisabeta Palace became the site of the kingdom on today's map of Romania. From within, the Royal Family began a constant effort, thought, like the future of Romania, for twenty-thirty years before. As a matter of fact, in 2007, the Royal Family published "A vision for Romania for 30 years".

Elisabeta Palace was not, in fact, a "private" residence either in the 1940s or after 2001. Destined by law in May 2001 as the residence of King Michael I during his lifetime, the palace was for a while an active center of representing the country's fundamental interests. Every year, hundreds of public events took place at the Elisabeta Palace, bringing together thousands of Romanian and foreign people to consolidate the country and its reputation. Here all generations of Romanians have been found, from primary school children to war veterans. Here Romanians came from the cities and communes of the country, from Bessarabia, from neighboring countries and from the distant ones. Apart from a few strictly personal rooms, most of the palace was and is used for public events, just like the garden.

Over the past 17 years, Republican state heads and crowned heads have passed the threshold of Elisabeta Palace, invited by King Michael I and later by His Majesty Margarita: King Juan Carlos I and Queen Sofia of Spain, Grand Duke Henri and Grand Duchess Luxembourg, Czech President Milos Zeman, President Vytautas Landsbergis of Lithuania (1990-1992), President Lech Walesa of Poland (1990-1995), President of Ukraine Victor Yuscenko (2005-2010), President of Latvia Vladis Zatlers (2007-2011) Sali Berisha of Albania (1992-1997), King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia of Spain (in 2009, as heirloom princes), several members of the Jordanian Royal Family, Prince of Wales, Prince Edward of Great Britain and Countess by Wessex, the heads of Imperial and Royal Houses of Bulgaria, Albania, Greece,Montenegro, Russia, Austria, Portugal, Germany, several members of the Royal Family of Belgium, the President of the Parliament of the Philippines, the President of the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova, members of the Czech Government, first lady of the Czech Republic Livia Klausova (2003-2013) Wade (2000-2012).

The Palace hosted hundreds of meetings with world country ambassadors, evenings dedicated to promoting the Romanian economy (local and national), evenings dedicated to county and municipal local administrations, evenings dedicated to NATO, EU, Red Cross, social, medical, military, civil society, sports, education, culture and science, the Romanian Academy and the Academy of the Republic of Moldova.

Garden Party, the national holiday of May 10, brings together thousands of people each year in the garden of Elisabeta Palace. It is one of the most loved and long-awaited moments of the year, for each of the Romanians taking part in the event. There has been a Garden Party of Children since June 1, for some years now.

King Michael and Queen Anne offered the High Patronage of many universities, high schools, institutions and organizations in the last two decades of life.

At present, Her Majesty Margareta, Crown Custodians, and Prince Radu, together with Princess Maria, have given royal patronage to dozens of institutions and organizations that come to come to Elisabeth Palace for their work to be better known and respected and supported by society. The largest sports organizations in the country, headed by the Romanian Olympic and Sporting Committee, have royal patronage. High schools, high schools and schools in the country and in the Republic of Moldova operate under the royal protection of Crown Custodian, Principal Radu and Princess Maria.

Major city halls have a permanent supporter in the Royal Family. The economic missions abroad initiated by the Royal Family have first-rate results in the future economic activity of companies accompanying the Royal Family. Such economic missions took place in Great Britain, Sweden, Jordan, Bulgaria, along with economic meetings in 55 countries on 4 continents, at the initiative and in the presence of members of the Royal Family.

Since February 1997, when King Michael and Queen Ana stepped into Elisabeta Palace and started in the first NATO royal tournament, 21 years have passed, in which the Royal Family has had more than 10,000 public activities in the country, 320 visits, with government support, abroad, had 114 meetings with heads of state outside Romania and 47 meetings with heads of state or heads crowned at Elisabeta Palace.

The Royal Family is nowadays one of the most prominent and respected promoters of Romania in Europe and in the translatlantic space. The Royal Family has an uninterrupted diplomatic activity of 151 years, of which the past 21 years have been among the most intense and productive, especially in the European Union and NATO.

2018, the Centenary of the Great Union, began. At the same time, we are 11 months before Romania takes over the presidency of the European Union, a fact of historical importance for the country. In the course of this year and next year, the contribution of the Royal Family to the promotion of Romanian fundamental interests is of obvious significance.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Very interesting!