site.btaKing Ferdinand I Laid to Rest in Vrana Palace Crypt

Bulgarian King Ferdinand I (reigned 1887-1918) was laid to rest in the crypt of the Royal Palace of Vrana on the outskirts of Sofia at 10:30 a.m. on Thursday, the King Boris and Queen Giovanna Royal Heritage Fund said in a press release.

The monarch's coffin was carried by Kyril Saxe-Coburg, Konstantin Sajonia-Coburgo and other members of the royal family. The procession, headed by Ferdinand's grandson, Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, proceeded to the crypt of the palace. There, after a prayer said by Oikonomos Nikolay Georgiev, Primate of Sofia's St Nedelya Metropolitan Cathedral, the body of the late king was placed into an expressly made sarcophagus of dark red marble.
 
Ferdinand's remains were flown to Sofia from Coburg, Germany, by a Bulgarian Air Force transport plane on Wednesday, 76 years after his death on September 10, 1948. So far the body of this country's longest reigning post-Liberation ruler rested in the crypt of Coburg's St Augustine Church.