by Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2019

This story sounds like a plot from a novel by Dan Brown, the author of the Robert Langdon novels (Angels and Demons, The Da Vinci Code, The Lost Symbol, Inferno and Origin).

Emanuela Orlandi was the 15-year-old daughter of Ercole and Maria Orlandi. Her father was an employee of the Institute for the Works of Religion, more commonly known as the Vatican Bank. The Orlandi family were citizens of and lived in Vatican City. On June 22, 1983, Emanuela walked outside of Vatican City to a Rome bus stop for the short ride to the Sant’Apollinare complex in central Rome where she took flute lessons three times a week. She never returned home, and the case remains unsolved.

There are various theories about what happened to Emanuela which include possible links to the Sicilian Mafia, the KGB, and the assassination attempt by Mehmet Ali Ağca on Pope John Paul II. Check out these Wikipedia articles. The Italian article is much more comprehensive.

• Wikipedia (English): Disappearance of Emanuela Orlandi
• Wikipedia (Italian): Disappearance of Emanuela Orlandi

In January 2023, it was announced that the Vatican opened a new investigation into the disappearance of Emanuela Orlandi.

• CNN: Vatican opens new investigation into 1983 disappearance of employee’s daughter

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The New York Times has published several stories about Emanuela’s disappearance over the years:

• Kidnapped Girl and Ağca in Pope’s Prayers – August 29, 1983
• Vatican Employee Appeals for News of Daughter – September 7, 1983
• Ağca Recalls Prison Visit by Pope – February 5, 1985
• Ağca Says He Altered Story Over Girl’s Abduction – July 5, 1985
• New Allegations Revive an Italian Mystery of the 1980s – June 25, 2008
• Crime Boss’s Tomb Is Exhumed for Clues in Missing Girl’s Case – May 14, 2012
• Bones Are Found in Rome, Renewing Speculation in 1983 Disappearance – October 31, 2018
• In Italy, a Decades-Long Search for a Missing Girl Brings Another Twist – July 11, 2019

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The Teutonic Cemetery is a burial site adjacent to St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City that has been dedicated to the German-speaking residents of Rome. Traditionally, prominent German-speaking people who have served the Roman Catholic Church and died in Rome are able to be buried there.

In the summer of 2018, the Orlandi family received a letter with a photo in it. The photo was of a marble statue of an angel in the Teutonic Cemetery. The letter instructed to “look where the angel is pointing” and led the Orlandi family to the tombs of Princess Sophia of Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Bartenstein and Duchess Charlotte Frederica of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Hereditary Princess of Denmark. Their tombs are next to each other and Princess Sophia’s tomb, known as the Tomb of the Angel, has an angel who is pointing down.

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When the Orlandi family went to see the tombs, they saw evidence that Princess Sophia’s tomb had been opened recently as there was new cement on it but they were given no information regarding a possible recent opening. In February 2019, the Orlandi family petitioned the Vatican Secretary of State to permit the tombs to be opened. A Vatican tribunal granted the request. during the first week of July 2019.

On July 11, 2019, Giovanni Arcudi, a forensics expert and professor at Tor Vergata University in Rome, led the team that opened the tombs. His job was to exhume the remains and verify their identities. It was decided to open both tombs to avoid possible misunderstandings about which grave was the grave indicated in the letter the Orlandi family received. Members of the two princesses’ families, the Orlandi family, and the Vatican police were present when the tombs were opened. However, to much surprise and amazement, there was no work for Arcudi to do. Not only was there no sign of Emanuela’s remains, but the remains of Princess Sophia and Duchess Charlotte Frederica were also missing. Vatican officials said they would research the burial records to try to discover what happened to their remains. It is possible that their remains were moved due to renovations at the end of the 1800s and again in the 1960s and 1970s.

Updates

• BBC: July 20, 2019 – Emanuela Orlandi case: Vatican attempts new search to solve mystery
• CNN: July 30, 2019 – The bones found in the Vatican’s cemetery are “too old” to belong to the missing teenager Emanuela Orlandi

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So who are these two princesses whose final resting places have become entangled in a long-unsolved missing person case?

Princess Sophia of Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Bartenstein

Not very much is known about Princess Sophia. Sophia was born on December 13, 1758, at Schillingsfürst Castle (in German) in Schillingsfürst, now in Ansbach, in Bavaria, Germany, and was given the names Sophia Carolina Josepha Philippina Maria Anna Lucia. She was the eldest of the seven children of Ludwig Leopold, ruling Prince of Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Bartenstein (in German) and Josepha Friederike Polyxena Alexandrina, Countess of Limburg-Stirum. Her father’s principality was located in present-day northeastern Baden-Württemberg, Germany. During the French Revolution, Sophia’s father gave refuge to many French noblemen and their families.

Sophia’s brother Prince Ludwig Aloys of Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Bartenstein was a Lieutenant General in the Austrian Army who fought against Napoleon in the Napoleonic Wars. After the defeat of Napoleon, Ludwig Aloys became a naturalized a French citizen, a Peer of France and a Marshal of France.

There is no indication that Sophia married. She died on January 20, 1836, in Rome at the age of 78.

Duchess Charlotte Frederica of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Hereditary Princess of Denmark

The first wife of the future King Christian VIII of Denmark, Charlotte Frederica of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, was born December 4, 1784, in Ludwigslust Palace in the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, now in Germany. She was fifth of the six children and the youngest of the two daughters of Friedrich Franz I, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, and Princess Louise of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg.

Charlotte Frederica married the future King Christian VIII of Denmark at Ludwigslust Palace in the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (now Germany) on June 21, 1806. The couple only had one surviving child, King Frederik VII of Denmark.

Christian and Charlotte Frederica’s marriage soon became unhappy. Charlotte Frederica had an affair with her singing teacher Édouard Du Puy. In 1809, when Christian found out, Charlotte Frederica was sent into internal exile to the city of Horsens, Denmark while Du Puy was banished from Denmark. The marriage officially ended with a divorce in 1810 and Charlotte Frederica never saw her son again.

While in Horsens and later in Aarhus, both in Denmark, Charlotte Frederica cultivated friendships with the local gentry and allegedly had affairs with army officers. In 1829, she was allowed to travel out of Denmark and moved to Carlsbad, a spa town, then in Germany, now in the Czech Republic. She made one last move in 1830 to Rome, Italy where she lived in the Palazzo Bernini on Rome’s main street and converted to Roman Catholicism.

Charlotte Frederica had been exiled when her son, now King Frederik VII of Denmark, was only one year old. She had hoped to once again see her son but she soon became ill. Charlotte Frederica died in Rome on July 13, 1840, at the age of 55. She was buried in a tomb paid for by her son and created by the Danish sculptor Jens Adolf Jerichau at the Teutonic Cemetery.

• Unofficial Royalty: Duchess Charlotte Frederica of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Hereditary Princess of Denmark

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Works Cited

• Cbsnews.com. (2019). Emanuela Orlandi mystery: Bizarre twist in hunt for missing teen as Vatican tombs unsealed. [online] Available at: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/vatican-open-graves-search-missing-teen-girl-emanuela-orlandi-cryptic-clue-cemetery-angel/ [Accessed 13 Jul. 2019].
• De.wikipedia.org. (2019). Ludwig Carl Franz Leopold zu Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Bartenstein. [online] Available at: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_Carl_Franz_Leopold_zu_Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Bartenstein [Accessed 13 Jul. 2019].
• En.wikipedia.org. (2019). Disappearance of Emanuela Orlandi. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Emanuela_Orlandi [Accessed 13 Jul. 2019].
• En.wikipedia.org. (2019). Louis Aloysius, Prince of Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Bartenstein. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Aloysius,_Prince_of_Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Bartenstein [Accessed 13 Jul. 2019].
• It.wikipedia.org. (2019). Cimitero Teutonico. [online] Available at: https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cimitero_Teutonico [Accessed 13 Jul. 2019].
• It.wikipedia.org. (2019). Sparizione di Emanuela Orlandi. [online] Available at: https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sparizione_di_Emanuela_Orlandi [Accessed 13 Jul. 2019].
• Nytimes.com. (2019). In Italy, a Decades-Long Search for a Missing Girl Brings Another Twist. [online] Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/11/world/europe/italy-vatican-emanuela-orlandi.html [Accessed 13 Jul. 2019].
• Sheena McKenzie, C. (2019). She disappeared at 15. A cryptic tip-off in the Vatican could hold key to her case. [online] CNN. Available at: https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/11/europe/vatican-missing-girl-emanuela-orlandi-intl/index.html [Accessed 13 Jul. 2019].
• Wooden, C. (2019). Vatican discovers empty tombs in search for missing woman | Catholic Herald. [online] Catholic Herald. Available at: https://catholicherald.co.uk/news/2019/07/12/vatican-discovers-empty-tombs-in-search-for-missing-woman/ [Accessed 13 Jul. 2019].