State Visit from Austria to Belgium: 21-23 March 2022

[iceflower]

Day 2:

King Philippe, Queen Mathilde, President Alexander van der Bellen and First Lady Doris Schmidauer, Princess Astrid and Prince Lorenz as well as Prince Laurent attended a performance at Tour & Taxis in Brussels this evening, March 22:


** rex gallery ** gettyimages gallery **

[An Ard Ri]

Nice to see the kings sister and brother in law this evening after a very uneventful/dismal 'state' visit.

[Somebody]

How nice to see the archduke of Austria-Este (and prince of Belgium) included in the state visit from Austria to Belgium.

[Duc_et_Pair]

A state visit from Austria should be very special for Belgium: before the Napoleontic occupation, the Southern Netherlands were known as the Austrian Netherlands.

1384-1556
Bourgondische Nederlanden / Pays-Bas bourguignons under rule of the House of Bourgogne
1556-1715
Spaanse Nederlanden / Pays-Bas espagnols under rule of the Spanish House of Habsburg
1715-1795
Oostenrijkse Nederlanden / Pays-Bas autrichiens under rule of the Austrian House of Habsburg

But I missed any special spark in this Austrian visit to the former Austrian Netherlands.

[cdm]

Belgium isn’t a pomp and circumstance country.
And maybe that was even more scaled down due to the war in Ukraine.

[wartenberg7]

Originally Posted by cdm

Belgium isn’t a pomp and circumstance country.
And maybe that was even more scaled down due to the war in Ukraine.

I´m sure that´s the reason why! Normally state visits in Belgium look very different. The banquet on the 1st day of a state visit is, like in any other monarchy, a bling-bling-event in Belgium also.

Originally Posted by Duc_et_Pair

It looks like the Belgian defence has to scrape every Euro to have some ceremonial.
Not only somtehing simple as the dirty, faded colours on the flags of the lanciers of the Royal Mounted Escorte.


Also that the guard of honour (!) for a foreign head of state (!) is in camouflage battle dress. As if no Euro was left in the pocket to purchase proper ceremonial uniforms.

Guard of honour in Brussels


Imagine that on this picture (Philippe and Mathilde with the Mayor of Amsterdam) all ceremonial uniforms were replaced by green camouflage battle dress.

I guess this is rather a gesture of piety than of money.
No good times for pomp-addicted royal watchers. First Corona ruined many royal events, now we have this horrible war in europe...! But considering all this terror, suffering and hardship, it is only consequent to scale down everything to what is necessary.

[Marengo]

Indeed, usually they are wearing ceremonial uniforms with white plumes on their hats:

https://www.bing.com/images/blob?bci...RyoJUPN.....3U.

The visit was scaled down due to the present circumstances.

[Duc_et_Pair]

Originally Posted by Marengo

Indeed, usually they are wearing ceremonial uniforms with white plumes on their hats:

https://www.bing.com/images/blob?bci...RyoJUPN.....3U.

The visit was scaled down due to the present circumstances.

Those are cadets from the Royal Military School, the only detachment with proper uniforms. The other uniformed group is the mounted escort, impressive from a distance, but a closer look reveals the poor state of the uniforms: dirty epaulettes, missing buttons, worn out marks. A new round of uniforms would be a great investment for the representation of the country.

[Blog Real]

State visit photo gallery on the website of the Presidency of Austria.

https://www.bundespraesident.at/aktu...senheit-der-eu