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Exhibition

MAGNIFICENCE AND GRANDEUR OF THE ROYAL HOUSES IN EUROPE

Mon. 11th July - Sun. 11th September 2011

This genuine voyage back in time, from the 17th up to the 20 th century, enables visitors for the first time ever to enter into twenty European Courts, where they will encounter the great imperial and royal figures.

During this splendid journey, a true “European tour,” visitors will meet: The kings of Portugal, Joseph I, Louis I and Queen Maria Pia; Philip V, grandson of Louis XIV, king of Spain, and Elisabeth, heir to the fabulous Farnese collections; Napoleon and Josephine and the First French Empire; Victoria, queen of Great Britain and Ireland, the “grandmother of Europe” and the prince consort Albert; Adolph II, first grand duke of Luxembourg; Leopold I, first king of the Belgians; Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands whose role during the first part of the 20th century was so important; The kings of Denmark, Christian IV, legendary king, and also Christian IX, the “father-in-law” of Europe in the 19th century; Gustav III, king of Sweden, and benefactor of the theater; Haakon VII, the first king of Norway, elected after the dissolution of the union with Sweden; Czar Alexander II, “the liberator” who also began the custom of Russian imperial visits to the French Riviera; John III Sobieski, elected king of Poland, famous for his victory over the Turks in the Battle of Vienna;  The princes de Brandenburg who became the kings of Prussia: Frederick I and the queen Sophie Charlotte, Frederick William IV and including the emblematic figure of Queen Louise, symbol of the resistance against Napoleon; Augustus the Strong, munificent prince elector of Saxony and king of Poland, famous for his court festivities which surpassed those of Versailles; Louis I, king of Bavaria, builder of Munich, and his son Otto I, first king of Greece, and his grandson Louis II of Bavaria; Emperor Franz Joseph and the legendary empress Elisabeth of Austria, known as Sissi; Prince Nicolas II Esterhazy, a great collector and art patron of Joseph Haydn; Charles, king of Naples, who helped launch the excavations of Herculaneum and of Pompeii; Victor Amadeus II, king of Sicily, then king of Sardinia;  The Grimaldi family: the princes of Monaco, from Honoré II in the 17th century to Charles III, founder of Monte-Carlo, and of course including Prince Rainier III and Princess Grace.

To illustrate this ambitious subject, the Grimaldi Forum Monaco has collected seven hundred magnificent and moving works which will plunge the visitor into the heart of the life, the role, and the passions of these personalities or couples who have marked the history of their dynasty and of their country. The exhibit will thus illuminate not only their epochs but also their actions in artistic, historical, and scientific fields.

“The Magnificence and Grandeur of the Royal Houses in Europe” combines the quality of exceptional loans donated by the present-day Courts from the palaces of reigning sovereigns with royal and imperial collections belonging to the great national museum collections.

Portraits, sculptures, art objects, furniture, porcelain, gold and silverwork, costumes and jewelry give life to four centuries of history and enrich this unique itinerary. Historical films, documentaries and works of fiction complete this brilliant exhibition, bringing to life these famous people about whom we have often dreamed.