Queen Mary's heart in a silver box exhibited in the Romanian city of Suceava

The Northern Romanian city of Suceava is currently hosting an exhibition centered around the silver box that contains the heart of Queen Maria (Mary) of Romania. The exhibition, which will be on until May 20 at the History Museum from Suceava, also includes medals and coins from the British Museum collection, which illustrate the ancestry of Queen Maria, as well as the image of the British Empire. The silver box with the heart of Queen Maria was first deposited in 1938 in Stella Maris Chapel in Balchik- the Queen 's residency at the Black Sea, then in Romania, now, in Bulgaria, as the queen desired. In 1940, when Romania gave back the Quadrilateral, including Balchik, to Bulgaria, the silver box was taken by the administrator of Bran Castle and rehoused in the castle's wooden church. In 1941, the box was placed in a special crypt cut into the rock of the Mountain Magura Branului. Balchik and Bran were the Queen's homes, close to her heart, as she used to say. In 1968, during the communist regime, the grill of the crypt from the Bran mountain was smashed and the box containing the queen's heart was placed in the treasury house of Bran Museum. In 1971 it was eventually transferred at the National Museum of Romania, where the bigger box was on display, but the heart itself was kept in the basement, according to Romanian media. Queen Maria, nee Marie Alexandra Victoria, was a niece of Queen Victoria of England. Marie married Romania's Prince – and later on King - Ferdinand of Hohenzollern in 1892. Soon after coming to Romania, she became beloved by the people. She was crowned in 1922 and died in 1938, when she was 62. Her heart was embalmed, placed in a silver box and wrapped in two flags - Romania's and Britain's. All these were placed in a second silver box. Ioana Toader, ioana.toader@romania-insider.com Additional reporting by Corina Saceanu