Belgian Royal Couple Visit Vienna

  October 1, 2018 at 6:05 pm by

Today, Monday October 1st, Their Majesties King Philippe and Queen Mathilde of the Belgians paid a one-day visit to Vienna, Austria, to participate at the official opening of the ”BRUEGEL” exhibition at the Kunsthistorisches Museum.

Upon their arrival in Vienna, the Royal Couple was officially welcomed by the Austrian President, Alexander Van der Bellen, and his wife, Doris Schmidauer, at Hofburg Palace, the Presidential Palace, with a welcoming ceremony in the courtyard of the palace. The King and the President inspected the guard of honor and then were played the national anthems. Then inside the palace there was a private meeting and the official picture were taken.

In early afternoon the King and Queen, along with the Presidential Couple, visited the City Hall where they were welcomed by the Mayor of Vienna, Michael Ludwig and then they went to the Nationalbibliothek, the national library. They toured the library and in the ceremonial hall of the library they admired a hand-drawn map from 1785.

In the evening King Philippe and Queen Mathilde, accompanied by the President and his wife, attended the official opening of the ”BRUEGEL” exhibition at the Kunsthistorisches Museum. The exhibition, organized to mark the 450th anniversary of the death of Pieter Bruegel the Elder, the most important artist of Dutch and Flemish Renaissance painting. The Kunsthistorisches Museum mounted the the largest ever exhibition dedicated to Pieter Bruegel that shows more than three-quarters of the artist’s surviving paintings, including loans from major museums across Europe.

During the event, King Philippe gave a speech to thank the President for the warm welcome. The King also expressed his delight to be in Vienna for the opening of the exhibition because “These initiatives are good examples of the excellent collaboration between our two countries. Not only in the cultural field, but also in those of the economy and trade or education and tourism, fruitful exchanges take place”.

Filed under Belgium.

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