After being veiled in the privacy of the Zarzuela, this rainy Saturday the public farewell events for Princess Irene of Greece, at the age of 83, began in Madrid. Her sister, Queen Sofia, was with her at all times, who days before to be by her side in her last days of life. Hours after her death, a private funeral chapel was installed in the palace, where Irene of Greece settled after the death of her mother, in 1981, to watch over her remains. Discretion marked what became the first posthumous tribute to the princess before beginning the public wakes.
Kings Felipe VI and Letizia, Princess Leonor and Infanta Sofía – who have traveled to Madrid from and , respectively – arrived at noon at the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of Saint Andrew and Saint Demetrius, in the capital, for a funeral mass. Doña Sofía, who has been received with messages of encouragement and applause from the curious who have come to the place, has entered the temple arm in arm with her granddaughter and heir to the throne. The infantas Elena and Cristina, two of the nieces of the woman known as —she did not want to have a husband or children, which allowed her to have unusual freedom for a woman of her position—have also attended the response. Irene of Greece was a member of the Royal Family who was very loved by all of them, and they remembered her as a person “dedicated to helping those most in need through her charity projects” in the note with which they announced her death.
Other members of the Borbón family have attended, such as Infanta Margarita de Borbón—Juan Carlos’s sister—and her husband, Carlos Zurita, and Infanta Elena’s ex-husband has also been seen. Members of the Hellenic royal family, such as Alexia from Greece, and Bulgarian royals, such as Konstantin and Kyril from Bulgaria, have also attended.
The Spanish Royal Family has received condolences, among others, from Metropolitan Bessarion, Orthodox archbishop of Spain and Portugal; authorities such as the mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, and the president of the Community, Isabel Díaz Ayuso; or the actor Antonio Resines and his wife, Ana Pérez-Lorente — goes back decades.
The burning chapel of Irene of Greece, whose coffin covered with the flag of the Greek royal family arrived around eleven thirty in the morning and has been received by an honorary picket of members of the royal guard, will be open to the public in the Greek Orthodox cathedral, located at number 12 Nicaragua Street, until six in the afternoon this Saturday. There will be a permanent video with images of the life of Irene of Greece and a book of condolences.
The Kings and their two daughters will be present next Monday morning in Athens in the final farewell to Irene of Greece. It will be the first time that Princess Leonor and Infanta Sofía visit with their family a country where part of their roots are. The one who has not been in Madrid today nor will he attend the funeral in the Greek capital is King Juan Carlos I. As EL PAÍS was able to confirm this Friday, it would be a very demanding physical effort to come from, first to Spain and then travel to Greece in such a short space of time.
After more than four decades residing in Spain, the remains of Irene from Greece and Denmark will travel to Athens, since one of her last wishes was to be buried in the gardens of the Tatoi palace next to her parents. On Monday, January 19, a funeral will be held at twelve in the morning local time (eleven o’clock in mainland Spain) in the city’s metropolitan cathedral, which is expected to be attended by representatives of several European royal families.
Before the funeral, between 8.30 and 10.30 in the morning, his body will lie in state in the chapel of Agios Eleftherios. Later, the procession will travel to the Tatoi cemetery, where it will be buried. It is here where the remains of Kings Paul I and Frederick of Greece rest; also those of his brother, the one – whose funeral in Athens – and who was being remembered in Tatoi on the same day that Irene of Greece died.
With her death, Queen Sofia loses a confidant and inseparable companion: for decades, Irene of Greece accompanied her older sister at numerous public events and shared long stays with her in Palma, although last summer she could no longer go to her refuge on the Balearic island like every year.
