Princess Stéphanie of Windisch-Graetz’s broken grave

Princess Stéphanie of Windisch-Graetz was a descendant of the Belgian royal family and the Habsburgs. 

She was born on 17 July 1939 as the daughter of Prince Franz Joseph of Windisch-Graetz and Countess Ghislaine d’Arschot Schoonhoven. Her father was a son of Archduchess Elisabeth Marie of Austria, who in turn was the daughter and only child of Rudolf, Crown Prince of Austria, and Princess Stéphanie of Belgium. She had a namesake aunt, who died in 2005.

Stéphanie herself would later say of the Belgian royals, “They are pitiful figures in a golden cage.”1

Stéphanie grew up in Kenya but moved to Vienna when she was 16 years old. She began a modelling career and later also became an artist. She married Dermot Blundell-Hollinshead-Blundell on 16 February 1967, and they had two sons in quick succession. Their marriage ended in divorce not much later. Stéphanie introduced the Cliniclows to Belgian hospitals, but it went belly up after a fraud case. Not much later, her beloved Château de Bierbais had to be sold to settle debts. She moved into an apartment in Brussels and told a reporter during one of her art exhibitions that she was basically broke. 2The Princess died following a second heart operation at the age of 79 on 12 July 2019. She was buried at the Cimetière d’Ixelles in Brussels, where her grave is now just a broken wooden cross. The white marker which once portrayed her name is now gone.Photo by Moniek Bloks

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