Jewelled Stars of Empress Zita

The Sheesh Mahal Museum of Patiala contains a unique but little-known collection of medals and decorations. Among those which are identified is a collection of five medals and decorations which belonged at one time to Empress Zita of Austria-Hungary, whose husband Charles was the last crowned head of the famous house of Habsburg. How these medals landed here is not quite clear but one can hazard a guess; and the story that emerges constitutes one of the more pathetic footnotes to the twentieth century, writes G.S. Cheema