Gergely Prőhle, director, Gergely Fejérdy, deputy scientific director, and Szilveszter Dékány, senior collection fellow, visited the archive of the abbey founded by ancestors of the Habsburg family almost a thousand years ago, which contains documents and photographs of the former heir to the throne, his parents, and his siblings.
The monastery, the final resting place of the heart urn of Charles and Zita, the last sovereigns of the Habsburg Monarchy, houses documents, correspondence and photographs from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Among the material that has only recently become accessible are records of considerable significance, including several sources pertinent to Hungary and broader European contexts from the interwar period. During the visit, they had the opportunity to examine, for example, the handwritten letters of Albert Apponyi and the files of the cabinet of the Belgian Prime Minister Henri Jaspard relating to the Habsburg family’s settlement in Belgium. Equally remarkable is the photographic collection, which comprises glass negatives that depict the daily life of their stay in Madeira, along with various albums and unique family photographs.
We want to express our sincere gratitude to Simeon Habsburg, nephew of the former Crown Prince, and Severin Meister, grandson of our namesake and a member of the Foundation’s Board, for their invaluable assistance in facilitating the tour of the collection. Following our constructive discussions with them, we are currently in the process of establishing a long-term agreement aimed at digitising the materials at Muri Abbey. The inaugural phase of this project will focus on processing and digitising the photographic collection.
This promising collaboration holds the potential to enhance our understanding of the significant contributions made by Otto von Habsburg’s extended family to both global and Hungarian history during the 19th and 20th centuries.
