This May 29, 2024, King Ferdinand I finally returned to his homeland, 76 years after his death. The first king of the Bulgarians was temporarily resting in a crypt in Coburg, Germany. King Simeon II, accompanied by three of his five children, attended the repatriation of his grandfather’s remains this Wednesday, which will now rest with his family at the Vrana Palace in Sofia.
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King Ferdinand I leaves Coburg to return to his homeland
This Wednesday, May 29, 2024, a military plane carrying the coffin of King Ferdinand I of Bulgaria left Germany, reaching Sofia, Bulgaria. The coffin of the first Bulgarian king was welcomed by the Bulgarian authorities at the airport, then headed to the Vrana Palace in Sofia. Vrana Palace is a property belonging to the Bulgarian royal family, recently recovered following lengthy legal proceedings.
The hearse carrying the remains of King Ferdinand was greeted at the entrance to the Vrana Palace grounds by a group of well-wishers and members of the royal family. King Simeon II, now 86 years old, awaited his grandfather’s remains at the entrance to the palace, accompanied by his wife, Queen Margarita, 89 years old.
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King Simeon II witnesses the return of his grandfather’s ashes
King Simeon II and Queen Margarita had three of their five children at their side. Prince Kyril, Prince of Preslav, second son of the couple, was present in Sofia with his partner, Katharine Butler. Prince Konstantin, Prince of Vidin, fourth son of the royal couple, also wore his dark mourning costume to welcome the ashes of his great-grandfather. Finally, Princess Kalina, Countess of Murány, last child and only daughter of the royal couple, was accompanied by her husband, Kitín Muñoz, and their only son, Prince Siméon.
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After a reign troubled by the First World War, King Ferdinand I abdicated four days after the capitulation of Bulgaria, on October 3, 1918. His son, Boris III, succeeded him on the Bulgarian throne and Ferdinand discreetly left the territory. It was in Coburg, Germany, his family’s original homeland, that he lived for three more decades. King Ferdinand died at the age of 87 in Coburg on September 19, 1948. He will therefore experience the mysterious and premature death of his son Boris III, in 1943, and the accession of his grandson, Simeon II, to the Bulgarian throne at the age of six. Simeon II reigned until the abolition of the monarchy by the communists in 1946. After a long period of exile, Simeon II returned to Bulgaria and was elected prime minister in 2001.
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King Ferdinand I’s last wish was to be buried in Bulgaria, a wish which was never respected, due to the regime. When he died in 1948, the monarchy had been abolished for two years in Bulgaria, and the royal family was living in exile. His coffin was placed in the crypt of the Saint-Augustin church in Cobourg, without ever being buried, meaning that he rested there temporarily. The sarcophagus of the discovered coffin rested at the foot of the tomb of his parents, Prince Augustus of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and Princess Clémentine of Orléans.
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The last wishes of King Ferdinand I finally respected
Mgr Antoine, Metropolitan of Western and Central Europe, special envoy of the Holy Synod, presided over the funeral ceremony this Wednesday. In addition to the Metropolitan and Orthodox priests, the Catholic Church was represented by the Apostolic Nuncio to Bulgaria, Mgr Luciano Suriani. Ferdinand was born into a Catholic family, as was his first wife, Marie-Louise de Bourbon-Parma. Their eldest son, future Boris III, was baptized according to the Orthodox rite, as provided for by the Bulgarian constitution.
Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, from the Kohary branch of the family, was born in 1861 at the Coburg Palace in Vienna, where his father had just moved with his family. In 1886, Prince Alexander of Battenberg, who had reigned over the principality of Bulgaria since 1879, was ousted from the throne. On July 3, 1887, the Bulgarian assembly met in Tarnovo and elected Prince Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg-Koháry as the new ruler. In 1908, the principality of Bulgaria was elevated to the rank of kingdom. Ferdinand I becomes the first tsar of the Bulgarians.
The first wife of King Ferdinand I, Marie-Louise of Bourbon-Parma, died at age 29, giving birth to their fourth child. She rests in Bulgaria, in the Catholic Cathedral of Saint-Louis in Plovdiv. His second wife, Éléonore Reuss de Köstritz, is buried in the church cemetery of Boyana, near Sofia. The heart of King Boris III rests in Rila Monastery, Bulgaria. At the beginning of April, King Simeon II had the remains of his son, Crown Prince Kardam, repatriated to Vrana Palace from Spain where he had been resting since his premature death in 2015.
Nicolas Fontaine
Editor-in-chief
Nicolas Fontaine has been a designer-editor and author for numerous Belgian and French brands and media. A specialist in royal family news, Nicolas founded the site Histoires royales of which he is the editor-in-chief. [email protected]
