Benidorm Royal Christmas

ruled the Austro-Hungarian Empire

Benidorm has a Royal Christmas visitor this year. Archduke Otto of Habsburg, or to give him his full Sunday best name - Archduke Franz Joseph Otto Robert Maria Anton Karl Max Heinrich Sixtus Xaver Felix Renatus Ludwig Gaetan Pius Ignatius of Austria – is having a winter break with his family in town.

He's the head of the Habsburg dynasty which once ruled the Austro-Hungarian Empire and his father Karl, was the last Emperor. Born in 1912, he became head of the family – in exile after the abolition of the monarchy after the First World War – in 1922.

He'll feel quite at home in Benidorm as he lived in Spain for quite a while, and his second eldest daughter Monika is married to a Spanish Count!

24 December 2008 Stephen White.