The ties of marriage were 40-year-old Grand Duke George Romanov and 39-year-old Italian Rebecca Bettarini. The ceremony took place in the Cathedral of San Isaac, in the heart of the former imperial capital.
According to an AFP photographer on site, the couple walked through the temple, each holding a candle, followed by two priests in golden robes.
The king’s heir with a large gray beard wore a black suit and a yellow vest, and his bride wore a long white dress with the emblems of the Russian Empire embroidered in gold.
Several women and girls in traditional Russian outfits helped the bride to put on the train of the dress. According to the Orthodox tradition, a husband and wife were crowned.
According to the organizers, 1,500 people were invited, including Queen Sofia of Spain, the ousted King of Bulgaria Simeon II and his wife Margarita, as well as other representatives of the European royal families.
Also invited were the Prime Minister of Luxembourg Xavier Bettel and her husband Gauthier Destenay, as well as the official representative of Russian diplomacy Maria Zazharova.
The press secretary of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, told reporters that the president “did not plan to congratulate the young couple.” “This wedding is not on our agenda,” said Dmitry Peskov.
On Friday morning, a resident of St. Petersburg Galina Bobrova approached St. Isaac’s Cathedral to see the king’s heir and his bride. “I wish everyone happiness. Obviously, the monarchy is part of our past, but I am interested, ”he told AFP.
The last marriage of a member of the Romanov family in Russia was the marriage of Tsar Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra 127 years ago.
Georgy Romanov was born in Madrid and educated at Oxford. He is the son of Grand Duchess Maria Romanova, granddaughter of Grand Duke Kirill.
The latter was a cousin of Nicholas II, the last Tsar of the Romanovs, a dynasty that ruled in Russia for more than 300 years until the February Revolution of 1917.
The deposed monarch was taken prisoner by the Bolsheviks and a year later he was shot in the Urals along with his wife, Empress Alexandra, four daughters and a son.
Their bodies were buried for a long time in a secret place for the Soviet authorities, their bodies were delivered in 1998 to the Cathedral of St. Petersburg, canonized in 2000 by the Russian Orthodox Church and officially recognized in 2008 as victims of Bolshevism. …
Grand Duke George Romanov met his fiancée in Brussels, where they both work in European institutions. Rebecca Bettarini, the daughter of a diplomat, converted to Orthodoxy and was renamed Victoria Romanovna.
Installed three years ago in Moscow, not far from the Kremlin, the Grand Duke claims to be involved in charitable projects.
In an interview with the Russian newspaper Fontanka, published on Wednesday, he explained that he decided to get married in St. Petersburg “for many reasons.” He argued that this city is “the history of Russia, the history of the Romanov dynasty.”
