- For the first time since the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution ousted the Romanov dynasty, Russia held its first royal wedding in St. Petersburg, with members of many European royal families attending
- Grand Duke George Mikhailovich Romanov, 40, and his Italian fiancee, Rebecca Virginia Bettarini, 39, were married at St. Isaac’s Cathedral
- After the two-hour wedding ceremony, 500 guests were invited to the reception, held at the Russian Ethnographic Museum, which was founded by Russia’s last tsar, Nicholas II, who was executed
ST. PETERSBURG, Russia: For the first time since the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution ousted the Romanov dynasty, Russia held its first royal wedding in St. Petersburg, with members of many European royal families attending the ceremony.
Grand Duke George Mikhailovich Romanov, 40, and his Italian fiancee, Rebecca Virginia Bettarini, 39, were married at St. Isaac’s Cathedral.
The former imperial capital was chosen for the ceremony, as it was the first location in Russia where the family returned after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Romanov said.
Some 50 royals from Belgium, Bulgaria, Italy, Spain and other European countries were among the 1,500 guests.
After the two-hour wedding ceremony, 500 guests were invited to the reception, held at the Russian Ethnographic Museum, which was founded by Russia’s last tsar, Nicholas II, who was executed, along with tsarina Aleksandra and their five children, by the Bolsheviks in July 1918.
Descended from Russia’s former imperial family, George Romanov was born in Madrid to the Prussian Prince Franz Wilhelm of Hohenzollern and Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna Romanova, Russia’s self-proclaimed imperial heir, who is the granddaughter of Nicholas II’s cousin, Grand Duke Kirill.
