Sidonia Order
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The Sidonia Order was founded on December 31, 1870 by King John of Saxony and was primarily intended for those women who had made self-sacrificing efforts to care for the wounded soldiers in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71.
The name of the order is reminiscent of Sidonie von Böhmen (1449–1510), the wife of Duke Albrecht the Brave of Saxony , who came from Bohemia and was known for her special virtue and piety.
Order classes
The order, created as an order of women , had only one class.
Order decoration
The decoration of the order consists of an eight-pointed white-enameled gold-rimmed St. John's cross . The round central shield is framed by a wreath consisting of eight golden diamonds and the golden image of the Duchess Sidonia is in profile on the white front. A blue enameled ring surrounds the center plate and it says SIDONIA in gold letters . On the reverse in the white medallion the crowned Saxon coat of arms in gold. A golden oak wreath and the foundation year 1870 all around .
There is a clasp above the top cross arm, which also serves to fasten the ribbon. The golden clasp consists of the crown in gold and projects beyond a Eichenkranz derived from a gothic shaped letters S is enclosed.
Carrying method
The ribbon is purple and has a white stripe with green lines on both sides.
The medal was placed on the left side of the chest, but it was still possible to wear it as a sash over the shoulder. The latter was seen as an increase in class.
The medal was kept with the corresponding medal bow / ribbon in a 15 cm wide, 17.5 cm deep and 6 cm high wooden box, which was lined with violet velor at the bottom and a red-brown silk fabric in the lid. The crown / Gothic "S" motif was repeated in gold embossing on the brown-colored lid.
literature
- Erhard Roth: The awards of the house order of the diamond crown, the order of merit, the order of merit with swords (until 1914) and the order of women of the Kingdom of Saxony. (= Statistical elaborations on Germany's phaleristics . Volume XIV.) PHV, Offenbach 1998, ISBN 3-932543-51-3 .
- Maximilian Gritzner : Handbook of the knight and merit orders of all civilized states in the world. Weber, Leipzig 1893 (reprint: Reprint-Verlag Leipzig, Holzminden 2000, ISBN 3-8262-0705-X ).
