The Armoury (Sala Armelor).브란 성(Castelul Bran. Bran Castle. 드라큘라 성). 브란(Bran)

The Armoury (Sala Armelor).

브란 성(Castelul Bran. Bran Castle. 드라큘라 성).

브란(Bran). 루마니아(Romania)

bran-castle.com

The Armoury (Sala Armelor)

The Armoury exhibits shields and flags decorated with escutcheons from Transylvania and Wallachia, armour components - helmets, gloves, a breastplate, two full armours with sidearms: halberds, swords, pole axes and battle whips, a mace and a crossbow. The models are made accurately after Transylvanian and Western armours from the 14th-17th centuries. The stove is embellished with blue ceramic tiles dating from the 19th century.

Princess Ileana, "the blue-eyed child", Queen Marie's favourite daughter, was considered by her mother "the only one amongst the children, who deserves to wear a royal crown". In 1931 Princess Ileana married Anton Habsburg. Archduke of Austria, Prince of Tuscany, and moved to his house in Sonnberg near Vienna. Her brother, King Carol II allowed her only short visits to her home country, forbidding her to give birth to any of her children in Romania. In 1938, following the death of her mother, the Princess obtained the ownership of Bran Castle. During the Second World War, she moved, with her children, to Bran Castle. The Princess had six children: Stefan (1932-1998), Maria-Ileana (1933-1959), Alexandra (n.1935), Dominic (n.1937), Maria-Magdalena (n.1939), Elisabeth (1942-2019). Three of her children, Stefan, Maria-Ileana and Alexandra were enrolled in a school in the city of Brasov. Her younger children, Dominic, Maria-Magdalena and Elisabeth stayed in Bran Castle and attended school in the town of Bran. In 1940, as this was war time, Princess Ileana brought the silver octagonal urn with Queen Marie's heart from Balchik, where it was originally placed, to Bran. At that time, she also moved her brother's remains from Buftea to Bran Castle. She called Mircea, her youngest brother, Prince of Romania, "my heart's greatest love". After the exile of the royal family from Romania, they settled in the U.S.A. In 1990, Princess Ileana was able to revisit Romania and her beloved Bran Castle. She passed away in 1991 in Youngstown, Pennsylvania, USA, and is buried in the cemetery of the momastery she founded.

A remarkable personality

Princess Ileana is remembered for her kindness, artistic talent and wit. She attended the Bucharest Sports School, received her masters at the Navigational School in Constanta, becoming the first Romanian woman with an open sea steersman permit. She publishd two memoires: "I Live Again"(1951), a bestseller in the U.S.A., and "Hospital of the Queen's Heart"(1954), as well as a series of Christian-Orthodox writtings. She studied sculpture with Ion Jalea and painting with Jean Steriadi. on the facade of the Balchik residence, the Princess' sculpture of her mother can still be seen today. The portrait of Ileana's first bron, Archduke Stefan, cast in bronze and signed "Princes Ileana, 1935" is currently on display at Bran Castle. In 1945, New York's Hobart and William Smith Colleges awarded her a Doctor of Letters Honoris Causa.

Wartime Nurse

During the Second World War, ther Red Cross delegated to Ileana, archduchess of Austria, the care of Romanian soldiers, who had been admitted to German hospitals, so she founded a hospital for the wounded at her Sonnberg, Austria, residence. She was able, after her brother's abdication, to return to Romania, and founded the Hospital of the Queen's Heart next to Bran Castle, equipped with electricity, running water and an operating room. She also founded a camp for young refugees and for politically persecuted people. In 1948, after the forced abdication of her nephew, King Michael the First, and control of the country was seized by the totalitarian Communist regime, Bran Castle was confiscated and the family was forced to flee for a long exile. They first moved to Argentian where the Archduchess founded the "Queen Marie Home" for Romanian refugees. In 1950, after settling down in the U.S.A., she founded the Free Romanian Scholarship Foundation, that offered scholarships to Romanian students.

Mother Alexandra

After losing her daughter, Marie-Ileana, in a plane crash, the Princess turned to monastic calling, becoming a novice at the Russian orthodox convent Notre Dame de Toute Protection in Bussy, France. Her hair was cut short and she took her monastic vows in 1967, becoming a Romanian Orthodox nun. She took the name Alexandra. In the same year, she founded the orthodox Monastery of the Transfiguration in Ellwood City, Pennsylvania, the first Romanian orthodox convent in the U.S.A. in which the English language was used in everyday sermons. As the convent's Mother Superior, Mother Alexandra carried the tradition and the religion of her native country.

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