Astrid of Sweden

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Astrid, Princess of Sweden, Queen of the Belgians

Princess Astrid Sofia Lovisa Thyra of Sweden (born November 17, 1905 in Stockholm , † August 29, 1935 at Küssnacht am Rigi ) was a member of the Bernadotte family and by marrying Leopold III. Queen of the Belgians .

Life

Astrid was the third daughter of Prince Carl of Sweden , Duke of Västergötland (1861-1951), son of King Oscar II of Sweden, and his wife, Princess Ingeborg of Denmark (1878-1958), daughter of the Danish King Frederick VIII from the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg and his wife Louise of Sweden-Norway . Her sister Märtha married into the Norwegian royal family.

On November 4, 1926, Princess Astrid married the Belgian heir to the throne and later King Leopold III in Stockholm . (1901–1983), the eldest son of King Albert I of Belgium and Princess Elisabeth Gabriele in Bavaria . The connection resulted in three children:

death

→ Main articles: Astrid Chapel on the course of the accident and the construction of the memorial

On August 29, 1935, King Leopold lost control of his car on a road near Küssnacht am Rigi on the shores of Lake Lucerne and fell down the steep embankment. The queen was thrown out of the car and into a tree in the accident. She died of a serious head injury in the king's arms. On the day of the accident, the coffin with the queen was transported by train to Belgium.

At her burial on September 3, 1935 in the royal crypt of the Church of Our Lady in Laeken in Brussels , her head was wrapped in bandages.

The municipality of Küssnacht transferred the property on which the accident occurred to Leopold. The regent had a memorial chapel built there.

In Laeken , Belgium , a memorial was built by the architect Paul Bonduelle and inaugurated on July 21, 1938. The building, built in the late neoclassical style, faces the Church of Our Lady of Laeken and goes back to Laeken Castle . In the same year, at the initiative of the local veterans' front, a bronze bust of the queen was placed in Wisterzée Park in Court-Saint-Étienne , Belgium, by the sculptor Victor Rousseau.

  • Queen Astrid memorial in Laeken
    Mémorial Reine Astrid
    (architect Paul Bonduelle, 1938)
  • Statue of the Queen in the Queen Astrid Memorial in Laeken
  • Bronze bust of the Queen in Court-Saint-Étienne
    (Victor Rousseau, 1938)

The former Belgian barracks Camp Astrid near Eschweiler is also named after her. She is also the namesake of the Astrid Ridge and, together with her husband, the namesake of the Leopold and Astrid coast in Antarctica.

gallery

  • Astrid Chapel in Küssnacht (Canton Schwyz, Switzerland)

  • Grave of King Leopold III. and his two wives

  • Bust in the park dedicated to her in Namur

Web links

Commons : Astrid of Sweden  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The tragic death of a young queen on Lake Lucerne. In: tagesanzeiger.ch . August 24, 2010.
  2. ↑ Photos of the car wreck and the queen laid out. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on September 27, 2013 ; accessed on February 6, 2017 .
  3. ^ Report on the visit of the Belgian King Albert II in Küssnacht. Neue Zürcher Zeitung, August 29, 2010, accessed on February 6, 2017 .
predecessor Office Successor
Elisabeth in Bavaria Queen of Belgium
1934–1935 		Fabiola Mora y Aragon
personal data
SURNAME Astrid of Sweden
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Astrid Sofia Lovisa Thyra of Sweden; Astrid of Belgium
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swedish nobles, princess of Sweden, queen of the Belgians
DATE OF BIRTH November 17, 1905
PLACE OF BIRTH Stockholm , Sweden
DATE OF DEATH August 29, 1935
Place of death near Küssnacht am Rigi , Switzerland