The Snow Princess: Queen Astrid of Belgium, Part 2

[lucien]

The cross of remembrance at the exact spot of the tree,and the Queen Astrid Memorial chapel,Küssnacht.
http://www.royaltyguide.nl/images-co...nacht/tree.jpg

http://www.royaltyguide.nl/images-co...ht/chapel1.jpg

Memorial of Queen Astrid in the park behind the Notre Dame de Laeken,just outside the Laeken Castle park walls,
http://www.royaltyguide.nl/images-co...20Astrid-1.jpg

http://www.royaltyguide.nl/images-co...20Astrid-2.jpg

Courtesy the extraordinary extensive site of Mardam.

[Dennism]

Originally Posted by Marengo

Thanks for posting that, DennisM, a nice quote indeed. And even today she is still popular among the (older) Belgian royalty watchers. I remember seeing a woman on television once who had an entire room dedicated to Queen Astrid. And each year at the crypt people put flowers on the day she died.

You're welcome. Her popularity continues among the Belgians. Thank you for the photos, Lucien.

[Vanesa]

Thank you for the pics, Lucien. But what sad ones...Queen Astrid is a remind of how a good Queen must be. She is still beloved by Belgian people (even if the youngers never knew her), and I suppose will be.

But how sad the way she died...

Vanesa.

[RubyTuesday]

Hi!

I found this forum whilst googling for information on Queen Astrid of Belgium.

The reason I was looking for information was because I had picked up an old postcard in a junk shop and wanted to know who she was.

I'm not much of a Royal fan, I must confess, so I doubt I will spend long here.

But in appreciation of the information I found here in these forums I thought I would join up for the purpose of sharing the picture postcard with you, as I am sure it will be of interest.

[CaliforniaDreamin]

Originally Posted by lucien

The cross of remembrance at the exact spot of the tree,and the Queen Astrid Memorial chapel,Küssnacht.
http://www.royaltyguide.nl/images-co...nacht/tree.jpg

http://www.royaltyguide.nl/images-co...ht/chapel1.jpg

Memorial of Queen Astrid in the park behind the Notre Dame de Laeken,just outside the Laeken Castle park walls,
http://www.royaltyguide.nl/images-co...20Astrid-1.jpg

http://www.royaltyguide.nl/images-co...20Astrid-2.jpg

Courtesy the extraordinary extensive site of Mardam.

These are all very beautiful. How different things would have been if she had not died so young and tragically.

Thanks for providing the photos.

[NotAPretender]

As a member of the Swedish royal family, in what religion would Astrid have been raised? Did she convert to Catholicism to marry into the Belgian Royal family?

[jinigirl]

Originally Posted by NotAPretender

As a member of the Swedish royal family, in what religion would Astrid have been raised? Did she convert to Catholicism to marry into the Belgian Royal family?

Astrid was raised in lutheran faith, she was still a few years married when she converted to Catholicism in the beginning of the 1930th

[NotAPretender]

Thank you, jinigirl. Then I suppose that she and Leopold were married in two separate ceremonies, Lutheran and Catholic?

[Fie]

No not really, the wedding in Sweden was a civil one, although technically a civil wedding does not excist in Sweden. The religious one was the one in Brussels, although it didn't had the complete Roman-Catholic liturgy, as Princess Astrid hadn't converted at that time. She did promise to raise any child that was to be born in the marriage in the Roman-Catholic faith. That meant that Joséphine-Charlotte, Baudouin and Albert were all baptized roman-catholic, so they all received Roman-Catholic godparents (Joséphine-Charlotte had Grand Duchess Charlotte of Luxembourg and her uncle Charles; Baudouin had his grandfather Albert I and princess Margrethe of Danmark who married prince René of Bourbon-Parma and Albert had Prince Félix of Luxembourg and Queen Elisabeth).

As Joséphine-Charlotte grew older she also became educated in the Roman-Catholic faith and she started to say an evening prayer with her gouverness. At that point Princess Astrid started to think about converting. She found it strange that she didn't have the same faith as her husband and child. Make that last one plural because at that time she was pregnant for the second time. So she decided to convert and did so somewhere in August 1930, just before she gave birth to Baudouin in September 1930.