The Russian National Press service has reported that George Mikhailovich Romanov and Rebecca Bettarini’s wedding location has been confirmed and scheduled for October 1 at St. Isaac's Cathedral in St. Petersburg.
“This was announced to TASS on Thursday by the press secretary of the state museum-monument "St. Isaac's Cathedral" Igor Staheev. “The wedding of a Spanish citizen, Georgy Mikhailovich Romanov, and an Italian citizen, Rebecca Bettarini, is scheduled for October 1," the agency's interlocutor said.
According to the Chancellery of the Russian Imperial House, Georgy Romanov is a citizen of the Russian Federation.
Georgy Mikhailovich Romanov is the son and heir of the head of the Russian Imperial House, Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna - the only child from the marriage of Vladimir Kirillovich Romanov, the head of the Russian Imperial House in exile (the son of the Russian Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich, who declared himself emperor in exile in 1924) and Princess Leonida Georgievna Bagration-Mukhranskaya. The question of the legality of her use of the title of Grand Duchess is a subject of dispute with other descendants of the Romanovs (an association of members of the Romanov family) belonging to the Nikolaevich branch, which traces its history from the grandson of Nicholas I, Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich the Younger.
On July 12, 2020, Rebecca Bettarini converted to Orthodoxy in the Peter and Paul Cathedral of St. Petersburg with the assumption of the name Victoria Romanovna. The wedding of Grand Duke George Mikhailovich and Bettarini "will be the first full-fledged, open, socially significant and decorated in full accordance with modern state laws of the Russian Federation and, at the same time, with the current norms of historical Russian dynastic law, the marriage of a member of the Russian Imperial House on the territory of Russia after the 1917 revolution," Alexander Zakatov, director of the Chancellery of the Russian Imperial House, candidate of Historical Sciences, told TASS.
According to him, after the revolution of 1917, "during the beginning of the troubles and the Civil War, marriages several junior members of the Russian Imperial House took place on Russian territory." In April 1917, Prince of the blood imperial Gavriil Konstantinovich was married to his first wife, in June 1918, Prince of the blood imperial Andrei Alexandrovich entered into his first marriage. "However, since the members of the Romanov dynasty were then discriminated against, were separated from one another, and were unable to contact the Head of the Russian Imperial House, the abdicated Emperor Nicholas II, who was in prison, these weddings were held in a purely private manner, and were not taken in accordance with dynastic law, did not receive any public notice," Zakatov noted.
The building of St. Isaac's Cathedral was built by the architect Auguste Montferrand and opened in 1858, it is included in the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage List. The cathedral became a museum in 1928, since 1990 Orthodox services have been resumed in it.”
TASS neglected to note that this will be the first wedding of any Romanov at St. Isaac’s since Emperor Peter the Great married Catherine (Marfa) Skavronskaya at the first St Isaac’s in 1707.
Source: TASS. https://tass.ru/obschestvo/12287797
