site.btaKing Ferdinand’s Remains to Be Transferred to Sofia

The remains of Bulgarian King Ferdinand I (reigned 1887-1918) will be transferred to Bulgaria on May 29, the King Boris and Queen Giovanna Royal Heritage Fund said in a press release on Monday morning.

After abdicating in favour of his son Boris III in October 1918, Ferdinand lived in exile in Germany and died in the Bavarian city of Coburg on September 10, 1948, aged 87. He was laid in a temporary sarcophagus in front of his parents’ tomb in the crypt of Coburg’s St Augustine Church. His last wish was to be buried in Bulgaria.

The King’s remains will be flown from Coburg to Sofia by an air force plane. The coffin will be ceremoniously unloaded and will be transported by a hearse to the Vrana Palace on the outskirts of Bulgaria’s capital.

The memorial ceremony will begin there at 3:30 p.m. and will be open to the public.

Ferdinand’s grandson Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha and his family, together with Metropolitan Anthony of Western and Central Europe as an official envoy of the Holy Synod and Archbishop Luciano Suriani, Apostolic Nuncio to Bulgaria, will be in attendance.

The coffin will be placed in the central lobby of the palace for a brief farewell in a close family circle. Next, the public will be admitted to pay their last respects.