By Erald Kapri
Part Two
Memorie.al / “Early in the morning, I found myself on the deck, as I hadn’t slept a wink all night. Durrës lay before me. I cast my gaze over the ancient Roman walls and further beyond, the Venetian ones, pierced by Turkish bullets, and behind the mountains, tall grey granite cliffs rising above the sea. The untamed landscape was completely different from anything I had seen until then. We were asked to remain on board until all the other passengers disembarked, and when the quay was empty, a black Mercedes appeared. I was greeted by Colonel Sotir Martini, a minister of the Court, who remained by the King’s side until he died in exile in 1950.”
Continued from the previous issue
It was registered in London with the license plate ENX 957, but the King used it only once. In 1944, at Geraldine’s urging, he donated the car to the British Red Cross, which in turn sold it to a private individual in 1946. It was last recorded as the property of a car collector, who placed it in a museum in Illinois for three years in 1987. After that, it was noted that the owner took it back, and its whereabouts are unknown. It is believed to be part of the car collection of American designer Ralph Lauren. Its identical sister car, King Farouk’s car, was sold in 2006 at an auction in Monte Carlo for the sum of 921,000 Euros!
As is common in such cases, the world press and foreign diplomats devoted considerable space to the gifts. *Time* wrote: “When the gifts arrived, it became clear that international complications had not gone unnoticed. Adolf Hitler sent a Mercedes-Benz sports car. Mussolini sent four bronze vases that once belonged to Napoleon; a dragon statue came from King Vittorio Emanuele, oriental carpets from the Greek dictator Metaxas, and an elaborate 17th-century writing desk from Generalissimo Franco of Spain.”
Geraldine saw only a few gifts, as most were deposited in the barracks near the palace that was under construction and where the royal couple never settled. They remained there for a long time and were taken on April 8, 1939, by the Italian invading army. After 1950, Geraldine opened a lengthy legal case in Italy to recover the gifts, or their value according to the list she had in her possession, but she received nothing.
The wedding day was April 27. Geraldine recalls that she woke up at six o’clock, despite having gone to bed very late. The wedding dress had again been chosen by the King. She wore a gown embroidered with pearls and diamonds, made by Worth especially for her. At 11:00 a.m., the bride entered the hall of honor of the palace. The American press devoted lengthy reports to the wedding and its atmosphere, such as this one from *The New York Sun* dated April 27, 1938, titled: “Albania Gets a Queen.”
Tirana, Albania, April 27 (A.P.) – In a civil ceremony distinguished by highland simplicity, Countess Geraldine Appony, whose mother is American, became the first Queen of the Albanians, when she was wedded to King Ahmet Zog. A salvo of 101 gunshots, the echoes of church bells and the calls of Moslem muezzins praying from minarets, signaled the marriage. The ceremony was held in a semi-Western and semi-Oriental atmosphere.
They were declared husband and wife by Hiqmet Delvina, Vice Speaker of Parliament, after he read the requirements of the Civil Code for marriage before 200 guests and members of the Royal Family. Thus, Queen Geraldine joined Queen Farida of Egypt as the youngest Queens in the world. Queen Geraldine is 22 years old and Queen Farida is 17 years old. Queen Geraldine is the only Queen with American blood. The ceremony took place in an annex of the Royal Palace. The walls were filled with ancient Albanian weapons.
The bride, slightly taller than the King, shone in a white satin wedding gown by Chanel, woven with pearls and silver threads in floral patterns. The train of her royal gown was long. A diamond tiara with orange blossoms hung from a white tulle veil. The King wore a parade uniform, adorned with decorations, as Commander-in-Chief of the Army. Thousands of picturesquely dressed highlanders – Gegs from the north and Tosks from the south – saluted the King, who rose from tribal leader to Monarch, now with a Queen. 50,000 schoolchildren, dressed in national costumes, stood out among the gendarmes and official representatives from every corner of Albania.
…After receiving congratulations from Count Ciano and other important guests, the Queen took the King by the arm and together they stepped out before the enthusiastic crowds standing in front of the Royal Palace.”
The British ambassador in Tirana also continued his reports in a very journalistic style. On April 30, he wrote to Foreign Secretary Eden: “I have the honor to report that the marriage of King Zog to Countess Appony took place at the Palace in Tirana on April 27. The wedding took place in a salon that had been added during the independence celebrations, improvised but quite spacious. The ceremony was extremely short. One detail was the gentleness and clarity of the Countess’s ‘yes’ in the Albanian language. The groom’s witnesses were Prince Abid of Turkey and Count Ciano, while the brides were her cousin, Count Karl Appony, and the Hungarian minister. Everything was organized excellently.”
However, the ambassador seems to change his mind about the rest of the wedding when he reports: “In the afternoon, the King and Queen hosted a luncheon for 120 guests, including the heads of foreign missions with their wives. The preparations left much to be desired, as the guests were seated haphazardly and there was a shortage of menus. Later, it was moved to three other rooms after a heavy rain penetrated the ceiling. Tirana had a day of great celebrations that day. The same was true in Durrës.
In the evening, we returned to Tirana for a reception organized by Prime Minister Kota at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. One detail is worth mentioning. General Franco’s representative was seated close to the wife of the Soviet ambassador. He had requested that such a thing not happen, but even worse, he found himself at dinner seated next to the Soviet ambassador himself.”
Two weeks later, on May 9, America’s largest magazine, *Newsweek*, devoted an equally interesting report to the wedding, titled: “Albania – Pleasure and Despair. Air Disaster Marks Zog-Geraldine Wedding,” which also gave sad news: “The abdication of Edward VIII in December 1936 left King Zog I of the Albanians as Europe’s only bachelor. Albania celebrated last week, with three days of festivities, the marriage of the Moslem King and Roman Catholic Countess Geraldine Appony…
…Zog’s gift to his Queen – a diamond tiara, set above the Albanian crown, a bracelet, a pendant – were chosen from jewelry sent to Tirana by Parisian and Viennese firms. On Saturday, he decided to return the jewelry he did not buy, valued at $1,052,000, by plane. The plane was caught in a storm and crashed into Mount Maranola in the Apennines. Shepherds found the bodies of 19 passengers, but few traces of the jewelry. The diamonds and other precious stones were burned, the platinum and gold melted. (The return was insured.) Among the passengers were the Albanian minister in Rome, journalists who had covered the wedding, and American Mrs. Helen Lindheim of New York.”
Geraldine recalls that the plane crash, in which some of the wedding guests were aboard, was like a bad omen she never forgot. It seemed more like a warning of their short-lived happiness in Albania. The Italian press reported until the mid-1970s that residents of the area and newcomers continued to search for decades in the area around the crash site for the precious stones from the “Cartier” firm that had been traveling in a special suitcase. In no case was anything of value reported found.
The newlywed couple traveled at the conclusion of the ceremonies from Tirana to Durrës in an open Mercedes. Thousands of people had lined the streets to see the 21-year-old Queen. Geraldine recalls that they sat on the veranda for a coffee, before the King showed her the large reception room furnished in the classical style, the dining room in Napoleon’s imperial style, and the bedroom in the style of Maria Theresa. The summer palace had just been restored on the occasion of the wedding and King Zog boasted of the carved ceiling, washed in gold. Expensive carpets had been laid there, part of the King’s rare collection. The carpets, along with weapons, were one of his passions.
“The bride chose a white silk nightgown with long bell-shaped lace sleeves and waited terrified for the King in the canopy bed,” – testifies Geraldine’s biographer. That very nightgown became the last incident of the wedding. The next morning, it could no longer be found by the Queen’s maid. Alarmed, the latter reported this to her husband. The reply was surprising:
“I have told you much about how we respect women, especially mothers. It was essential that you be a virgin and every foreign girl who comes for marriage must undergo a medical examination. I pride myself on my ability to read people and I only needed to look into your eyes. I didn’t tell you anything about this visit, because I knew you wouldn’t have agreed. But at the same time, I had to provide proof to Parliament, so I took your nightgown and sent it to the Speaker.”
The nightgown had served as state proof of Geraldine’s virginity. Despite this, as she herself testifies, she was extremely happy that night, the night that concluded her almost four-month stay in Albania. “Yes, I loved him very much! He seemed very handsome to me with that fair skin, light hair, sky-blue eyes, with his direct and imposing character. And his hands, with long, slender fingers and carefully manicured nails, contrasted with the hard life he had led as a soldier. Beyond his wonderful smile, what impressed me most was his gentleness. During those weeks before the wedding, they pampered me so much as never before in my life. I felt like I was living in the tales of the ‘Thousand and One Nights’.”
Zog and Geraldine lived inseparably for 23 years, until he passed away in Paris in April 1961. Geraldine died in Tirana in October 2002. At the end of her life, her only wish had been fulfilled: to die and be buried in the country that had placed the crown upon her head. In 2014, *The Richest* magazine declared her the fifth most beautiful queen in the history of royal marriages. After Queen Grace Kelly of Monaco, Queen Rania of Jordan, Queen Jetsun Pema of Bhutan, and Queen Soraya of Iran. Many books have been written about her, and the most common description encountered is: “The White Rose of Budapest!” / Memorie.al
