Grand Duchess of Russia Leonida Georgievna Romanov will be buried on June 3 in Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg, a spokesman for the house of Romanov said on Wednesday.
The de-jure empress dowager, the eldest representative of the Romanov family, died in Madrid on Sunday at the age of 95.
The coffin with the body of the grand duchess will arrive from Madrid early on June 2 and be placed in Peter and Paul Cathedral for the public to pay their last respects, Boris Turovsky, one of the organizers of the ceremony, said.
On June 3, Metropolitan of St. Petersburg and Ladoga Vladimir will perform the burial service, Romanov spokesman Alexander Zakatov said.
"We insisted for no access barriers for people who want to pay last respect to Leonida Georgievna," Zakatov said, adding that a lot of senior visitors are expected.
The late duchess will be buried in the Romanov tomb in Peter and Paul Cathedral near her husband, Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich.
Leonida Georgievna was the last representative of the Romanov Imperial House born before the Russian Revolution in 1914. She was descended from the House of Mukhrani, a collateral branch of the Bagrationi dynasty. Her family ruled ancient Georgia and Armenia from the early Middle Ages until the beginning of the 16th century.
She left the Soviet Union in 1931, with the help of Russian writer Maxim Gorky.
She married Sumner Moore Kirby in 1934, and gave birth to her first daughter Helen. After divorcing Kirby, the princess married Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich Romanov, who claimed to be the Russian emperor from 1938 to his death.
Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna, the daughter of Grand Duke Vladimir, succeeds her mother as the head of the house of Romanov. She has styled herself as the heir to the Russian imperial throne since her father died in 1992.
Russia's last tsar, Nicholas II, his wife, their four daughters and son, and several servants, were shot dead by the Bolsheviks in a basement in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg in the early hours of July 17, 1918.
The murdered Romanovs were canonized in 2000. Their remains were buried in Peter and Paul Cathedral in 1998.
ST. PETERSBURG, May 26 (RIA Novosti)
