Romanoff - Empress Maria Fedorovna

Empress Maria Fedorovna

In September 2006, Empress Maria Fedorovna, the consort of Alexander III, was buried in the church of Sts. Peter and Paul beside her husband. Having fled Russia from the Crimea in 1919, she spent her remaining years in exile firstly in the United Kingdom with her sister, Queen Alexandra and later in her native Denmark mainly at Villa Hvidore. She was buried in 1928 on her death in Roskilde Cathedral, the burial site of members of the Danish Royal Family. The transfer of her remains in 2006 was accompanied by elaborate ceremonies, including at St. Isaac's officiated by the Patriarch Alexis II. For monarchists, the reburial of the Empress in the former Imperial capital, so many years after her death, further underscored the downfall of the dynasty. Princes Dmitri and Prince Nicholas Romanov were present at the ceremony, along with Princess Catherine Ioannovna of Russia, daughter of Prince Ioann Konstantinovich of Russia. Other members of the Imperial Family present included the descendants of the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna including Prince Michael Andreevich of Russia the senior direct male descendant. Princess Catherine who was 90 years old at the time, and died in Montevideo Uruguay the following year, was the last member of the Imperial Family to be born before the fall of the dynasty, and was ultimately to become the last surviving uncontested dynast of the Imperial House of Russia.