Albania Prepares for Historic Royal Wedding

On April 27, 1938, Albania hosted its first royal wedding, when King Zog married Hungarian aristocrat Geraldine Apponyi de Nagy-Appony.

The wedding, held in Tirana, was the most glamorous event the country had seen; tens of thousands of Albanians celebrated in the streets and dozens of foreign journalists from every continent came to report on it. Mussolini's envoy was a witness and Hitler gave the couple a Mercedes as a wedding present.

One year later in April 1939, when Italian fascist forces invaded Albania, King Zog and his family left the country and lived for decades in exile.

Now, 78 years on, the grandson of King Zog, Prince Leka is going to be married in Tirana on October 8 in the country's second royal wedding - a ceremony that the organisers have promised will be filled with royal pageantry.

Prince Leka came to Albania in 2002 after a childhood spent in exile in South Africa, and subsequently held advisory positions at the foreign ministry and the presidency.

Over the past two years, he has been managing his family's properties and the Queen Geraldine foundation, which supports poor families, orphans and children in need.

He is marrying his long-time fiancee, the Albanian actress Elia Zaharia; preparations for the wedding started months ago and an internet page has been feeding those interested with the latest details of the event.

The organisers have promised that representatives of around 20 royal families from all over the world will visit Albania for the wedding, but their names are being kept secret for security reasons.

Sulejman Gjanaj, the head of the Legality Movement, a small right-wing monarchist party that supports the Albanian royal family, told BIRN that the wedding is going to endorse the...