Alexander Prince von Battenberg – A European Castaway
Friday till Sunday, 16th – 18th September
Thursday till Monday, 22nd – 26th September
From 11 am to 5 pm every day
Free entrance!
Alexander Josef Prince von Battenberg, born in Verona in 1857, went to school in Darmstadt and was raised at Heiligenbeg castle. He is a descendant of a morganatic line of the house of Hesse with widely ramified relations to the European nobility. After military training, he, at the age of 22, became the first prince of Bulgaria (1879 – 1886) and played a decisive role in establishing a state structure based on a European model. His greatest merit was the unification of the Principality of Bulgaria with East Rumelia.
After his politically forced abdication in 1886, he returned to Darmstadt. In 1889 he entered the Austro-Hungarian military service in Austria. At the age of only 36 he died in Graz. He was buried with a state funeral in Sofia where a mausoleum was erected in his honour.
This unique exhibition describes the successful and tragic events of Prince Alexander’s extraordinary life with previously unknown pictures from his life and accounts compiled from sources in Austria, Bulgaria, England and Germany. In addition there is an special show of pictures directly from Bulgaria.