Emperor Karl I (1887-1922) and Empress Zita ("the Last Empress") (1892-1989)

[Warren]

Originally Posted by sjgrace

I'd love to see pictures of her funeral in Vienna in 1989.

It's only a small picture, but better than nothing...

Funeral Carriage of Empress Zita

~ ¤ ~

[Marengo]

A nice portrait of the Empress:



The family:

[Elsa M.]

When Austria proclaimed the Republic in 1919, the imperial family found refuge in Switzerland, but after a series of meetings between the winning countries of the War, it was decided that Portugal (a peripherical country) would be in better conditions for the exile. Thus the last emperor of Austria was sent to Madeira, a well-known island among the European royalty of the time.

Karl I arrived in Madeira on November 19th 1921, and the imperial couple set their residence in the "Vila Vitória". In January 1922, Empress Zita went to Switzerland, in order to bring the children to Madeira as well and then the family went to live at the "Quinta Gordon" (after renamed Quinta do Monte).

Although Karl I would live just a few months in Portugal, his simplicity and kindness would be remembered by the people of the island, since it was not rare to see the Emperor himself buying the newspaper, or the Empress going for bread.

Karl I died with pneumonia, on April 1st 1922, and he was buried in the Church of Nossa Senhora do Monte. Only his heart was taken by the Empress to Vienna. Then in 1968, a chapel (Capela do Imaculado Coração de Maria) was built to recieve the tomb, which bears the Latin inscription:


CAROLUS I, D.G. AUSTRIAS IMPERATOR BEREMIAE REX...
APOSTOLICAS REX HUGARIAE NOMINE IV. NATUS PERSENBERG XVII-VIII-MDCCCLXXXVII OBTIT MADEIRA ADORAUS SS.SACRAMENTEN PRAESENS DICENS «FIAT VOLUNTAS TUA»


Karl of Habsburg was known for his goodness and faith, and in 2004 he was beatified by Pope John Paul II. Among the testimonies gathered in the Positio Super Virtutibus, there are small episodes like the one stating that he saved the life of a man who was drowing in the Isonzo, or the chaplain, Rodolfo Spitzl, who saw the emperor personally taking care of a wonded soldier.