Prince George Mikhailovich Romanov married his Italian fiancée Rebecca Betarini in St. Isaac’s Cathedral
The heir of the last Russian emperor, executed with his family by the Bolsheviks in 1918, married today in St. Petersburg in the presence of several crowned heads.
Grand Duke Georgy Mikhailovich Romanov married his Italian fiancée Rebecca Betarini in St. Isaac’s Cathedral in the heart of the former imperial capital of Russia in a complex religious ceremony in the presence of numerous foreign guests. According to the organizers of the event, there were 1,500 people, including the Spanish Queen Mother Sofia, Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha and his wife Margarita, as well as other representatives of European royal families.
Georgy Mikhailovich Romanov was born in Madrid, Spain. He is the son of Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna, who proclaimed herself heir to the Russian imperial throne, and her husband, Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich of Russia. He has lived in France and Spain for most of his life. His great-grandfather, Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich, a cousin of Nicholas II, managed to escape Bolshevik violence during the 1917 revolution in Finland. He and his family later moved to Western Europe.
Georgy Romanov visited Russia for the first time in 1992. He has been living in Moscow for three years, where he works on a number of charity projects.
The Grand Duke met his fiancée Rebecca Betarini in Brussels, where they work for European institutions, BTA writes. Accepting the Russian Orthodox faith, 39-year-old Betarini, the daughter of a diplomat, changed her name to Victoria Romanovna.
In an interview with the Russian website Fontanka, published on Wednesday, Georgy Romanov said that he chose to get married in St. Petersburg for “many reasons”. In his words, this city is “the history of Russia, the history of the Romanov dynasty.”
The Romanov dynasty ruled Russia for 300 years before Nicholas II abdicated in 1917, putting Russia on the path to Bolshevik revolution, civil war, and 70 years of communist rule.
In 2000, the Russian Orthodox Church canonized Nicholas II, who was portrayed as a weak leader by the Soviet authorities.
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