BULGARIA: PRINCESS KALINA MARRIES SPANISH EXPLORER KITIN MUNOZ AT ROYAL WINTER RESIDENCE

Record ID: 640647

  • Title: BULGARIA: PRINCESS KALINA MARRIES SPANISH EXPLORER KITIN MUNOZ AT ROYAL WINTER RESIDENCE
  • Date: 27th October 2002
  • Summary: MV BRIDE AND GROOM WALKING INTO ORTHODOX CHURCH TOWARDS PRIEST SCU GROOM, KITIN MUNOZ, KISSING CRUCIFIX HELD UP BY PRIEST; SLV CHOIR SINGING;
  • Embargoed: 11th November 2002 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BOROVETS, BULGARIA
  • Country: Bulgaria
  • Topics: General,Royalty
  • Reuters ID: LVA9V39ESSLKXEC8OVII6S4DBFGX
  • Story Text: Bulgaria's only princess has married a Spanish explorer in a royal wedding that officials said could boost her father's popularity and the country's economy.
    Junior royalty from around Europe flocked on Saturday (October 26, 2002) to the green mountain resort of Borovets, 75km (45 miles) south of Sofia to attend the wedding of Princess Kalina, 30, and Spanish explorer and former commando Kitin Munoz, 43, at the royal winter residence, Tsarska Bistritsa.
    The event was also expected to give the father of the bride, ex-king and current Prime Minister Simeon Saxe-Coburg, a popularity boost after a plunge in opinion polls in recent months over painful economic reforms.
    Saxe-Coburg, the only east European ex-monarch to return to some kind of power after the collapse of communism, has launched a series of harsh measures in an effort to bring Bulgaria into NATO and the European Union since he won elections in June 2001.
    "I don't know whether the wedding will bring tourists to Bulgaria, but it might help Simeon in opinion polls," a European Union diplomat said.
    The son of King Boris III, Saxe-Coburg came to the throne at the age of six after his father died in 1943, a year before the communists took over. Two years later, they abolished the monarchy in a rigged referendum and the ex-king lived most of his life in Spain.
    Officials have said the wedding, which has dominated local media for weeks, could promote the country abroad. Guests were offered traditional Bulgarian food, drinks and gifts of rose oil, a key ingredient in perfumes.
    Locals in Borovets stood in the cold for hours waiting to catch a glimpse of Princess Kalina in her wedding dress, a cream-coloured two-piece outfit inspired by Bulgarian folk costumes.
    The bride, who often wears unusual clothes, is Saxe-Corbug's only daughter and she has four brothers, all of them married.
    Munoz, a commoner seen in Bulgaria as a sort of 'Indiana Jones' figure, has tried unsuccessfully three times to cross an ocean in a reed boat and is an honorary ambassador for UNESCO for his work on the environment and indigenous peoples.
    Bulgarian fortune tellers have predicted marital bliss for the couple, saying the long-haired Munoz, a former member of the Spanish army's elite commando unit, was made for the unconventional Kalina.
    The sleepy mountain villages near Borovets were treated to a good look at European aristocracy, Spain's Princess Christina and Frederick of Windsor, the son of the Duke of Kent, were among hundreds of foreign dignitaries flown in.
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