Today’s evening, this Saturday June 4, 2005, the city of Cetinje, in the heart of traditional Montenegro, hosted the first gala ceremony of the Order of Danilo I in the country since 90 years. This prestigious event in the old Royal Capital — placed under the High Patronage of the President of Montenegro, H.E. Mr. Filip Vujanović, and his wife Svetlana — started by an investiture ceremony in the historic setting of the Blue Saloon of the King’s Palace, the former official reception room of King Nikola I.

The highly symbolic ceremony was the occasion for Hereditary Grand Master H.R.H. Crown Prince Nicolas to formally invest both his consort, H.R.H. Crown Princess France of Montenegro, and their elder daugther, H.R.H. Princess Altinaï Petrovitch Njegosh, with the insignia of Dame Grand Cross in the Order of Danilo I.

Underscoring in his congratulation address to his wife and his daughter that the role of his family by his side since 1989 — including Hereditary Prince Boris, not present at Cetinje — was mostly ignored by Montenegrins, the Hereditary Grand Master particularly wished to praise the deep devotion of his wife and the essential support of his two children in all what he did for his country up to now.

He thus thanked Crown Princess France for having known so well how to manage abreast her professional life, her role as attentive mother and her public duties as consort of “the” Crown Prince of Montenegro; as well as Princess Altinaï for her contribution to the international promotion of Montenegro, by associating the world-known name of Petrovitch Njegosh to her career as recognized director of short-films, also remembering the 2001 photograph exhibition on Montenegro his daughter organised in Paris, and the monograph book she wrote — to be soon presented in Cetinje, “See in the Dark”, a compilation of texts and photographs on death and mourning in Montenegro [1].