Royal visit to Iasi to celebrate National Day

Her Majesty Margareta, the Custodian of the Romania Crown and HRH Prince Radu will celebrate this year Romania's National Day in Iasi, as a tribute to Her great-grandparents, King Ferdinand I the Unifier and Queen Mary.

The royalties will end thus a series of 75 public events in which they participated on the occasion of the Centenary of the First World War and the Greater Union, which began on August 26, 2016, according to a press release issued by the Press Office of Her Majesty the Custodian of the Crown's House.

The visit of Her Majesty Margareta, the Custodian of the Crown, takes place at the invitation of the City Hall of Iasi, a Royal City.

According to the document, Her Majesty Margareta, the Custodian of the Romanian Crown and HRH Prince Radu will attend on Saturday, together with HRH Princess Sofia, the Requiem Mass for King Ferdinand I and Queen Maria at the Roman Catholic Cathedral. The Mass will be presided by His Excellency Peter Gherghel, Bishop Emeritus. At 12.00 pm, Her Majesty will unveil the bronze statue of King Ferdinand the Unifier, which was placed downtown, in front of the historic Roznovanu Palace, the headquarters of the City Hall. The event will also be attended by HRHs Prince Radu and Princess Sofia.

During the evening, Her Majesty and Prince Radu will attend "The Youth and the Romanian Crown" event, at the Palas Mall, in the Chopin Hall, where they will meet with the pupils from Iasi who obtained great results at the Olympiad.

Also, in the afternoon, Princess Sofia will attend, at the Iasi National Athenaeum, the inauguration of the Hall of Great Romanians, a gallery that will include works, documents, Chancellery-issued documents, original manuscripts or books bearing the signatures or having belonged to some important historical figures from Romania.

According to the programme, the Custodian of the Crown and Prince Radu will participate in a double book launch at the Palas Mall. The volumes "Her Majesty's World," coordinated by Alexandru Muraru and Daniel Sandru and the volume "The Last Talks with King Mihai", by Bogdan Bogerban-Iancu.

In the evening, Her Majesty Margareta will turn on the Christmas lights and she will inaugurate the Christmas Fair in Iasi, which is located in front of the City Hall. The Royal Family will then participate in a ceremony where Her Majesty Margareta and Prince Radu will be both awarded the title of Honorary Citizen of Iasi, in the "Vasile Pogor" Hall of the Iasi City Hall.

On Sunday, December 1, the Royal Family will take part in the ceremony dedicated to the National Day of Romania, in front of the Palace of Culture in the Iasi.

The local councilors approved at their plenary session on Friday that two streets and a park in Iasi should be named after some representatives of the Royal House. Following the vote given by the municipal councilors, the name of Splai Bahlui Mal Drept will be changed into King Mihai I Boulevard, the name of Splai Bahlui Mal Left will be changed into King Ferdinand I Boulevard, and Podu Ros Park, near the Multipurpose Hall, will be called the Queen Mary Park.

The initiatives come shortly after Romania celebrated the Centenary of the Greater Union, a historical act which happened between 1916 and 1918, after Iasi was the war capital of the country and the residence of the Royal House at that time. In front of the Roznovanu Palace, the headquarters of the City Hall of Iasi, a monument dedicated to King Ferdinand I was located this year, and one of the most important boulevards in Iasi already bears the name of King Carol I.