Finding My Roots

The more I read about and saw in Vienna, the more I felt like I was in my grandparents' homeland. I don't know exactly where Grandma and Grandpa Mendl came from, just that wherever it was, it was in the Austro-Hungarian empire. It struck me as probably not coincidental that Grandma and her sister, my Great Aunt Mary, bore the names of Empress Maria Theresa (or María Terézia in Hungarian). So I was especially interested in the Hungarian items in the Hofburg Schatzkammer, or Treasury. We expected to see crown jewels, which we did; what we didn't expect to see were coronation robes, liturgical vestments, reliquaries, and on and on. You may see more about this later - with a Belgian connection.

In the meantime, below you'll see a Hungarian coronation robe and some Hungarian jewelry. Unfortunately I haven't mastered the art of a steady picture-taking hand, so these are a little blurry.