Past Glories Relived at Empress’s Rites

Austria on Saturday buried its last empress, Zita, with all the pomp and panoply of a vanished empire that for centuries ruled territory from Poland to the Mediterranean.

It was the nation’s biggest funeral since Emperor Franz Joseph was buried in 1916, in the waning days of the Habsburg Empire. For a few hours, Vienna and, through television, much of Europe, relived the glorious days of the Austro-Hungarian Empire that collapsed in 1918 with its defeat at the side of Germany in World War I. Its monarchy and court were forced by the Allies into exile.

The Empress Zita, wife of the empire’s last monarch, Karl I who ruled over the Austro-Hungarian empire from 1916-18, died March 14 in Switzerland. She was 96.

The funeral at St. Stephen’s Cathedral began 67 years to the minute after Karl’s death in 1922 on the Portuguese island of Madeira, where he is buried. His remains are expected to be interred next to the empress within two years, according to Austrian Roman Catholic Church officials.

The royal couple went into exile in 1919, first to Switzerland, later to Spain. Zita was not allowed to visit Austria until 1982 because she refused, until death, to renounce her claim to the throne.

After Karl died, Zita spent several decades trying to return to monarchical rule to what became the republic of Austria.

She lived in the United States for many years and often sought President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s help in returning the Habsburgs to the throne.

At the services, the archbishop of Vienna, Hans-Hermann Groer, presided, with prayers read in many of the old empire’s many languages.

Prince Albert of Monaco, Prince Albert of Belgium and many ambassadors from countries within the old empire were among the 8,000 people attending the services in the cathedral where Zita was anointed empress nearly 73 years ago.

Austrian President Kurt Waldheim also attended. His appearance sparked reports that numerous other royalty, including Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II and Spain’s King Juan Carlos I, stayed away because of Waldheim’s service in the German army during World War II.

Following the services, the empress’s bier, resting in the same ornate coach used for the funeral of Franz Joseph, was drawn by six black Noricum stallions to the chapel of the Capucine Church, where other Habsburg royalty are buried.

Police estimated about 40,000 people lined the streets as royalty, priests and volunteer regiments in military regalia from the last century, many wearing bearskin hats and carrying bayonets, marched in rain behind the black-draped coach.

Along the route landlords offered their balconies and terraces for up to $3,000 to reporters for a better view, and black-bordered, life-size portraits of Zita were displayed in store windows.