Per Carlsen said Maria Fyodorovna, known in her native country as Princess Dagmar, would be re-interred in St. Petersburg to honor her last wishes and in keeping with an agreement reached by the governments of Russia and Denmark in 2005.
Maria's remains are to be brought to Russia's former imperial capital by ship on September 26 and reburied two days later at the Peter and Paul Fortress, next to her husband and other members of the Romanov dynasty, who ruled Russia for more than 300 years.
A number of exhibitions showcasing the legacy of the Russian imperial house will be staged in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Denmark to highlight the event, Carlsen said.
One such display, devoted to the tradition of drawing in Alexander III's family, is to open Wednesday, September 19, at the Moscow Kremlin's Armory. Another, profiling Maria Fyodorovna as an empress and a person, will start Thursday at the headquarters of the state archives in the capital, Carlsen said, adding that Denmark's national archives had contributed to both.
Danish Princess Marie Sophie Frederikke Dagmar (1847-1928), baptized a Lutheran, took the name Maria Fyodorovna when she converted to the Orthodoxy before marrying Alexander III, who reigned from 1881 to 1894. One of her sisters became Queen Alexandra of Britain and a nephew was crowned King George V of Britain.
Despite the overthrow of the monarchy in 1917, Maria did not leave Russia for her native Denmark until 1919.
Maria Fyodorovna's son - Russia's last tsar, Nicholas II - and her daughter-in-law and grandchildren were killed by the Bolsheviks in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg in 1918, but until her death, she refused to acknowledge the massacre had ever taken place.
The purported remains of Nicholas II were reburied in St. Petersburg in July 1998.
