Princely wedding ceremony in Sárvár
On the pictures we can see a fiancée in snow-white wedding dress, who is leaded by an older gentleman with glasses and a top-hat in his hand. The fiancée and the wedding guests are very happy, and are just walking on the town street to the church.
But who is this happy fiancée? Who is the bridegroom?
She is Dorothea, Princess of Bavaria (1920), fourth daughter of Franz, Prince of Bavaria, the older man next to Dorothea, and Isabella von Croy. She marries Gottfried, Archduke of Austria and Grand Duke of Toscana, member of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine (1902-1984). They married in Sárvár, Hungary, but neither of them lived here. But the castle of Sárvár belonged to the estates of the royal Wittelsbach family of Bavaria. The Wittelsbach Princes owned Sárvár castle between 1875 and 1945, firstly Ludwig of Bavaria, the later Bavarian king (1913-1918), then his fifth children, Prince Franz, Dorothea’s father.
Dorothea and Gottfried chose Sárvár as their wedding place. The ceremony took place in a wonderful summer day, on 3rd August in 1938. The houses of the town were decorated with flowers and Hungarian national flags. From the window of the castle tower flied the Bavarian white-blue flag.
The wedding procession started from the castle, along the bridge and the main square to the church between the lined teachers and pupils of the convent-school. From the balcony of the church little girls scattered petals onto the wedding guides. The bridesmaids wore wonderful flower-patterned white dresses; the fiancée wore snow-white wedding dress with veil and tail, and in her hands held a beautiful white bunch. The tail was held by two boys, one of them was perhaps Prince Rasso, Dorothea’s younger brother.
After the religiously wedding ceremony the wedding procession returned to the castle. The event was like a wedding ceremony of a star in nowadays, because an amount of photographers and cameramen endeavoured to immortalize that moment. One of the local photographers, Mátyás Trinkl took a lot of pictures about the ceremony. His photos were collected and preserved by the Nádasdy Ferenc Museum. A short newsreel was taken too about this event that preserved among the film archives.
Our little town, Sárvár could get onto the imaginary genealogical map of the royal European families. We can enjoy the last unclouded moments of bygone days during viewing the photos.