Carlo III would like to monetize as much as possible the charm that royal residences have always had on the public and, at the same time, bring people closer to the royal family. So she decided to open to visitors some of the rooms that until now remained closed in one of Queen Elizabeth’s most beautiful and loved estates: Balmoral. Not only. After discovering the history and secrets of the ancient home, tourists will also be able to have tea and sweets just like the royals do. Not even the enormous public success, however, would have affected the skepticism of Prince William, who was against the initiative.
To Balmoral for tea
Balmoral It is not only the summer and private residence of the Windsors. It is also a place of the heart. Until a few years ago, in this residence the royal family had the privilege of seeing an unprecedented version of the Queen Elizabeth intent on washing the dishes after lunch and Prince Philip busy at the barbecue, or on long excursions along the Scottish valleys. Furthermore, Charles and Lady Diana spent their honeymoon here.
BalmoralHowever, it was also the scene of sad events. Elizabeth II passed away within its walls on 8 September 2022. William and Harry, still children, learned the news of their mother’s death after the accident which occurred on 31 August 1997 in the Alma Tunnel in Paris. . As Il Corriere.it recalls, it was Balmoral for Queen Victoria “a paradise where everything seems to breathe freedom and peace.” Victoria was so fascinated by it that she made it her family’s summer residence in 1848 and decided to enlarge it in 1853. Less romantic was Edward VII, for whom the Castle was nothing more than “a barn with a thousand drafts”.
Two opinions that perfectly convey the contrasting feelings that Balmoral arouses in visitors: either you hate it with all your strength, or you love it forever. Who knows what modern tourists will think, who from this year, until August 4, will be able to walk through its rooms, even in many that until now have been closed to the public. Charles III, in fact, has made a surprising decision: to allow 40 lucky people, every day, to admire seven rooms on the ground floor used by the royal family, in addition to the gardens and the ballroom, the only rooms that can already be visited. Among the unpublished environments, let’s call them that, there is also the hall in which the last photographs of Queen Elizabeth were taken.
The visit costs 100 pounds (120 euros), lasts 45 minutes and is accompanied by 15 guides who take turns. The real novelty, however, is another: with 50 pounds more visitors can have tea and scones in the residence and use the porcelain services made for the Queen Victoria and which are still used by the Windsors today.
William disagrees
There are 3,400 tickets available for the visit. Indeed, they were, given that they literally sold out in just a few hours. Those who purchased them were tourists from the United Kingdom, but also from the United States, Australia and New Zealand. Officially, Charles III realized this idea with the aim of bringing people closer to the British monarchy, to tell something more about the private lives of the Windsor.
Those little things, like PD James’ novels or the gong to announce dinner, that tell the story of family life. Of course, we are talking about a particular family, but one that has, like everyone else, a everyday life made up of common events, objects that have an emotional value and is formed by people with precise tastes, who live in splendid homes leaving signs of their passage.
In fact, however, Charles III would also have wanted to capitalize as much as possible on the attraction that the public feels towards the Crown and the places linked to it. Perhaps also for this reason the principe William he wouldn’t have taken his father’s decision very well. Balmoral, in fact, remains the place of his childhood. To the magazine “Hello!” Balmoral curator Sarah Hoare said: “It’s the holiday home. There are no state visits here. We don’t have state rooms. It’s their private home.” Where the Windsors, especially William and Harry, keep some of the most important memories of their lives.
Now the rooms where the royal family laughed and cried, talked, discussed, argued, spent quiet moments away from official commitments, forgetting protocol for a while, will be crossed by strangers’ eyes.
Will these guided tours really serve to make the Windsors known, or will they lead, on the other side of the coin, to a progressive loss of the mystery surrounding the monarchy? Hard to say. Much will depend on the type of interest, on the frame of mind with which tourists will approach the ancient and contemporary history of Balmoral.
