THE PALLAVICINI FAMILY

12th Century

The Pallavicini family belongs to the Italian aristocracy and was first mentioned in 12th Century historical records (Marquis Obertus Pallavicini 1112-1116). The family lands, the "Stato Pallavicini," lay between Parma and Piacenza in the later Duchy of Parma. With Gianluca Pallavicini as patron, in the course of the second half of the 18th Century a separate branch in Austria’s hereditary lands was established.

18th Century – Gianluca and Giancarlo Pallavicini

Gianluca Pallavicini was born in 1697 in Genoa. Coming first as a diplomatic representative of Genoa at the Viennese court, in 1733 he joined the Imperial Service. He served the Habsburgs at the time of Maria Theresa, organized the first navy in the hereditary lands and eventually became General-Field Marshal. Among other things, he was entrusted with the implementation of the Empress's administrative reform in Lombardy.

He subsequently received the Golden Fleece, a privilege bestowed by the Emperor, and then moved back to Bologna. There in 1770 he organized a reception for the Mozart family in his splendid mansion to facilitate their access to local society. Gianluca Pallavicini died in Bologna in 1773. Supported and encouraged by the powerful Gianluca, his nephew (Giancarlo Pallavicini 1741–1789) became the actual founder and patriarch of this branch of the family. Giancarlo was also an extraordinary commander in the service of the Empress.

Intermarriage with influential families of the Austrian hereditary lands such as those of the Zichy, Szechenyi, Hardegg or Fürstenberg, the award of the Hungarian ‘Indigenat’ status (acceptance into Hungarian nobility) in 1803 and the Bohemian and Moravian 'Inkolate' (naturalization) in 1843 all led to a strengthening of the position of the dynastic family. In 1836 Alfons Pallavicini senior successfully attained confirmation of the title of Margrave in Austria’s hereditary lands.

19th and 20th Centuries

Alexander Pallavicini senior was a member of the House of Lords in the Hungarian Parliament, Imperial and Royal Commander and Privy Council, Member of the Order of Malta, the Order of the Golden Fleece and Knight of the Order of the Iron Crown. The end of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy also left its mark on this family: through land reforms in the Czech Republic and political changes in Hungary as well as the First World War, the family gradually lost their possessions outside of Austria.

The Pallavicini family was always a social and political factor to be reckoned with. A member of the family, Johann Pallavicini (1848-1941) was Ambassador in the Kingdom of Romania and Ambassador Extraordinary of the Kingdom in Constantinople until the end of the First World War (1918). Alfred Pallavicini (1848-1886), was an officer in the Imperial and Royal Tyrolean infantry regiment and an extreme Alpinist; the name of Pallavicini is immortalized on the Pasterze glacier at the foot of the Grossglockner (Pallavicini Trough), which he was the first to conquer with three guides on 18 Aug.1876.

At the beginning of the Second World War György Jr. Pallavicini (1912-1949) joined the resistance against the German occupation of Hungary and after the end of the war immediately undertook efforts to make Otto von Habsburg King of Hungary. With the adoption of the law that made Hungary a republic he had to drop these plans and was arrested and sentenced to forced labor for his ideologies. His younger brother, Antal, was sentenced to death after the 1956 revolution; in 1991 he was rehabilitated, posthumously promoted to colonel and recognized for his achievements.

Part of the family left Hungary in 1945. Karoly Pallavicini initially worked as a banker in America and later in Vienna. All his life he supported his native Hungary, where he was a big proponent of the opening up of Hungary. Today his family lives in Vienna's Palais Pallavicini, which has been in their possession since 1842.