RIP. ps It's a lo.....ong read
End of a royal dynasty as Otto von Habsburg is laid to rest... with his heart buried in a crypt 85 miles away
# His body is buried in Austria, his heart interred in Hungar
# Von Habsburg was oldest son of Austro-Hungarian last ever emperor
# His death brings to a close 640 years of European history
As a tradition usually reserved for royals and religious leaders, it was certainly a fitting way to mark the end of a 640-year European dynasty.
The heart of the last heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire was buried in a Hungarian crypt yesterday - a day after a magnificent Austrian ceremony where his body was laid to rest.
Surrounded by a wreath of flowers and leaves in the colours of the Hungarian flag, a silver urn containing the heart of Otto von Habsburg, who died at the age of 98, was interred after a private mass.
It followed Saturday's pomp and ceremony where thousands of Austrians, European royalty and politicians lined Vienna's streets to pay respects as he was buried at the city's Imperial Crypt.
Pomp and ceremony: Members of the Honour Guards marched at the St Stephen Basilica, Budapest, before the interment of Otto von Habsburg's heart 50km south at the Benedictine Abbey of Pannonhalma
Ceremony: A guard of honour at Budapest's St Stephen Basilica stands in front of a 1916 painting of Otto von Habsburg attending his father's coronation ceremony
And it came just hours after a second funeral service at St Stephen Basilica in the Hungarian capital of Budapest, which was attended by the country's President and Prime Minister.
Von Habsburg's request to have his heart encrypted separately at the Benedictine Abbey in Pannonhalma, central Hungary, reflected the affection he held for the country - Austria's 19th century empirical partner.
His decision was a break from family tradition as many Habsburgs have their hearts kept in copper urns in Vienna's Augustiner Church, a few streets away from the imperial crypt in the Cappuchin Church.
Tribute: A guard of honour holds a picture of Otto von Habsburg (left) whose heart was interred in a silver urn (right) in the Basilica of the Pannonhalma Abbey in Hungary
The heart burial marked an end to a week of ceremonies honouring Habsburg - the son of the last Austro-Hungarian emperor and scion of the oldest noble family in Europe.
After officially renouncing all claims to the Austrian crown in 1961 it meant that Habsburg, despite having children, was the last of his family to officially be deemed royal.
President Pal Schmitt and Prime Minister Viktor Orban attended Sunday's smaller mass ceremony.
But just a day before, political leaders and European royalty, including Prince and Princess Michael of Kent, visited the Austrian capital for the funeral.
They witnessed Lederhosen-clad Tyrollean guardsmen hoisting the coffin onto their shoulders as they carried him to rest in a pomp-filled ceremony evocative of the country's past grandeur as a ruler of much of Europe.
Emotional: Otto von Habsburg's sons Georg (left) and Karl (right) carry the heart urn during the requiem at the Basilica of the Pannonhalma Abbey in Hungary
Ceremony: Hungarian priests and monks prayed in front of the urn containing the heart of Otto von Habsburg during the requiem
Final resting place: Otto von Habsburg's heart is buried in the crypt in the Basilica of the Benedictine Abbey of Pannonhalma, Hungary
Austria shed its imperial past after it lost World War I. But for six hours, the pageantry, colour and ceremony accompanying the Habsburg burial turned Vienna into the imperial city that was once the hub of the Austro-Hungarian empire.
Habsburg, the Crown Prince, was banished with the rest of his family after the collapse of the empire following World War I. The family then scattered across Europe.
Following his abdication, his father Charles I died in 1922, and so, at the age of nine, Otto became the head of the House of Habsburg.
Honoured: Hungarian President Pal Schmitt attended Otto von Habsburg's second funeral ceremony
Mourning: The Habsburg family pictured at the second funeral ceremony in Budapest, including Karl (right) his wife Francesca (third left), their son Ferdinand (second right) their daughter Eleonore (left) and Georg Habsburg (second left)
On Saturday Habsburg gained entry into Vienna's Imperial Crypt, the final resting place of his dynasty, not as emperor but as a mortal stripped of all honours and titles.
Three times the master of ceremonies knocked on the crypt's doors and twice the coffin was denied entry - first when Habsburg was named as emperor and holder of dozens of other royal titles, then when his academic and political achievements and other accomplishments were listed.
Marching: Tiroler Schtzen, the special guards of honour form Tirol, paraded as part of the procession in honour of Otto von Habsburg in Vienna on Saturday
Tribute: The guard of honour at the funeral of Otto von Habsburg on Saturday dressed in Austro-Hungarian uniforms
Honour: On Saturday Vienna was transformed back into the imperial city that was once the hub of the Austro-Hungarian empire with the pageantry, colour and ceremony of Otto von Habsburg's funeral
Respects: Crowds lined the streets of Austrian capital Vienna for the first funeral of Otto von Habsburg
'We do not know him,' was the response from the Capuchin friars within. The doors only opened onto the sun-filled afternoon and into the gloomy half-light of the chapel above the crypt after Habsburg was described as 'Otto - a mortal and a sinner.'
The crypt was the final destination for the crowd of mourners, which stretched back 0.75 miles, who had packed the 1.5 mile procession route from the Gothic cathedral where Habsburg had been eulogised earlier in the day. Police estimated 10,000 spectators lined the route.
Last heir to the empire: Otto von Habsburg died at the age of 98 with his seven children nearby
Austrian army units in slow funeral march step were followed by a gurney carrying the coffin, covered with the yellow-black Habsburg flag and flanked by the Tyrollean home guardsmen.
Next came close family members, then crowned heads from Europe, Austrian government leaders, clergy, men in fanciful Habsburg regiment colors and others dressed in less spectacular garb
The elaborate ceremony in Vienna's St Stephen's cathedral also evoked the grandeur of the dynasty.
The Gothic church was packed, as colourfully clad guardsmen, light cavalry units called dragoons, Hungarian hussars, sword-bearing members of student guilds and representatives of other uniformed formations harking back centuries mingled with somberly clad mourners.
Two floral crosses of roses were placed on the coffin — one for Habsburg's seven children, the other for his grand- and great grandchildren. Two giant floral arrangements of 500 white roses and 200 red carnations also stood near the coffin.
In another symbolic bow to the Habsburgs, seven bishops from nations of the former Austro-Hungarian empire - seven countries plus parts of modern-day Montenegro, Italy, Poland, Romania and Serbia and Ukraine - assisted Austrian Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn.
Early days: Habsburg with his wife Regina a day before their wedding in 1951
The ceremony included singing the old Imperial hymn praising the emperor - although many in the pews stayed silent, reflecting a widespread critical view of the monarchy in modern-day Austria.
The coffin of Habsburg's wife, Regina, who died last year, was taken to the crypt earlier in the day.
It has been the final resting place for members of the Habsburg dynasty since 1632 and a prime Vienna tourist attraction.
Royal: Otto Von Habsburg became Crown Prince when his father Charles 1 was crowned emperor in 1916. He became head of the House of Habsburg at the age of nine when his father died
While never formally renouncing his right to the throne, Habsburg in his later life became an outspoken supporter of parliamentary democracy and a fighter for a united Europe.
He used his influence in a vain struggle to keep the Nazis from annexing Austria before World War II, then campaigned for the opening of the Iron Curtain in the decades after the war.
In a message read by Papal Nunzio Peter Stephan Zurbriggen, Pope Benedict XVI praised the gaunt, bespectacled scion of the Austrian empire who was also a member of the European Parliament as a 'great European ... who engaged himself tirelessly for the peace and coexistence of peoples and for a fair system on this continent.'
European Parliament President Jerzy Buzek spoke of the special affection his Polish countrymen and others in Soviet-ruled Eastern Europe had for Habsburg because of his efforts to unify the continent during the Cold War.
'It was very important to us ... on the opposite side of the Iron Curtain,' he said.
European royals were among the VIPs in the front pews as incense-swinging clergy and the first chords of Michael Haydn's Requiem in C-Minor signaled the start of the Mass.
Among them were Sweden's king and queen; the ruling grand duke and grand duchess of Luxembourg; Liechtenstein's ruling duke and duchess; the former kings of Romania and Bulgaria, and representatives of the British, Belgian and Spanish ruling houses.
Before the start of the Mass, they and family members stood silently in front of the coffin, heads bowed in respect.
With the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall, Habsburg used his seat in European Parliament to lobby for expanding the European Union to include former Eastern bloc nations.
He was a member of the European Parliament for the conservative Bavarian Christian Social Union in southern Germany and also served as president of the Pan-European League from 1979 to 1999.
Karl, the eldest son of Otto and Regina Habsburg, now runs the family's affairs and has been the official head of the House of Habsburg since 2007.
Portrait: Otto von Habsburg as a child
THE RISE AND FALL OF THE HOUSE OF HABSBURG
Ruler: The Habsburgs were at their most powerful in the early 16th century under Charles V, who, through diplomacy, marriage, and conquest, ruled one of the largest empires ever created
Otto von Habsburg's death officially marks the end of a 640-year dynasty of Europe's once most powerful royal family that supplied the continent with a nearly uninterrupted stream of rulers.
Also spelled Hapsburg, the name came from the castle of Habichtsburg, meaning Hawk's Castle, built in the 11th century in Switzerland.
The family can be traced back to the 10th century and it established a hereditary monarchy in Austria in the 13th century.
From 1452 it held the title of Holy Roman Emperor almost continuously until the empire was dissolved by Napoleon in 1806.
It reached its greatest extent in the early 16th century under Charles V, who, through diplomacy, marriage, and conquest, ruled one of the largest empires ever created.
In addition to its heartland in central Europe, it included Spain, the kingdom of Naples and other parts of Italy, and most of the Netherlands, as well as vast colonial possessions in the Americas.
When Charles abdicated in 1556 the empire was divided between his son Philip, who inherited Spain, the New World colonies, the Italian possessions, and the Netherlands, and his brother Ferdinand, who inherited the rest (the ‘Austrian’ territories), as well as the title of emperor.
The Habsburgs ruled in Spain until 1700 and in Austria until 1918, when the upheavals of the First World War brought the dynasty to an end.
Otto von Hasburg, whose full name was Franz Joseph Otto Robert Maria Anton Karl Max Heinrich Sixtus Xavier Felix Renatus Ludwig Gaetan Pius Ignatius von Habsburg, was born in 1912 in Reichenau, Austria.
He became crown prince when his father, Charles I, was crowned emperor in 1916, during World War I. After Austria and Germany lost World War I, the Austria-Hungarian Empire was dismantled, Charles I had to abdicate and Austria went on to become a republic.
In 1919, Charles and his family had to leave the country for what turned out to be permanent exile in several different countries, including Switzerland, Belgium, and France.
After his father's death in 1922, the nine-year-old Otto officially took over as the head of the House of Habsburg. He tried to negotiate his return to Austria in 1935 and again in 1938 when he even sought to become chancellor to fight the expected invasion by Hitler's troops, but could not gather enough support.
Instead, he found a channel through the U.S. embassy in Paris to contact President Franklin D. Roosevelt and later claimed to have prevented Allied bombings of a number of Austrian cities by pleading with the U.S. military.
He was also credited with having helped about 15,000 Austrians, including many Jews, escape the Nazis. From early in World War II in 1940 to after the Allied invasion of France in 1944, Habsburg lived in Washington DC, before returning to Europe to live in France, and then in Poecking, Germany after 1954.
Still, he was not allowed to return to Austria until 1966, five years after he officially renounced the crown. He later claimed to be baffled by the hostility and criticism he faced in his home country.
Despite his opposition to the Nazis, Habsburg was at times faulted at home for being too right wing. In 1961, Spanish dictator Francisco Franco offered to make him king of Spain after his own death.
Habsburg declined, but later praised the fascist leader for helping refugees, calling him a 'dictator of the south American type ... not totalitarian like Hitler or Stalin.'
More recently he was criticised for remarks in 2008 in which he insisted Austrians were the victims of Hitler - who was Austrian born - rather than accomplices.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...les-away-different-country.html#ixzz1SaDsZFg4
That automatically comes up whenever you copy and paste anything so I leave it as a reference, there are reader comments that people may wanna read through plus they sometimes update the news stories as new info comes to light which my post wouldn't showWhat do you mean by "Read more" when you quote the entire article all the time?!?
