Queen Maxima’s Gorgeous Pearl State Visit Tiara

King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima began their three-day state visit to Austria in Vienna on Monday.

They began the visit with a stop at the Hofburg Palace, where they were received by President Alexander Van der Bellen and his wife, First Lady Doris Schmidauer.

Next, the royals paid a solemn visit to the Shoah Wall of Names Memorial. They placed small stones at the memorial as an act of respect and remembrance.

Doris Bures, Second President of the Austrian National Council, accompanied the royals on a tour of the parliament building in Vienna, which has been undergoing renovations.

Queen Máxima wore red for the first events of the visit: a flowing dress with a cape detail, plus a matching picture hat, handbag, gloves, and shoes.

Máxima accessorized with diamonds and pearls. She wore earrings with large pearl button studs and pear-shaped pearl drops, plus an elaborate diamond ribbon brooch with a diamond and pearl pendant. She also arrived wearing the small ribbon of the Order of the Netherlands Lion.

Máxima has worn this brooch often. We saw her wear the piece with the same pearl pendant during a visit to the United Arab Emirates in November 2021. The spectacular brooch is also incredibly versatile, as the gemstone pendant within the double diamond frame can be swapped out for other drops. For example, Máxima wore the brooch with a citrine pendant on Prinsjesdag in September 2021.

You’ll also note that is wearing a different ribbon near her left shoulder in this photograph. That’s because she received the Decoration of Honour for Services to the Republic of Austria during the visit to the Hofburg Palace at the beginning of the visit. She’s wearing the small insignia of the new decoration here.

Máxima also wore bracelets on both wrists and rings on both hands. On her right wrist, she wore her diamond wedding bracelet, plus an eight-row seed pearl bracelet with a diamond clasp.

You’ll also spot her diamond family initial bracelet on her left wrist. She wore her engagement and wedding rings on her left hand and her diamond and ruby ring, a gift to mark the birth of Princess Amalia, on her right.

For the traditional state banquet on the first night of the visit, Máxima wore a Grecian-inspired Stella McCartney gown with metallic accessories and pearl and diamond jewels.

She wore the family’s grand Antique Pearl Tiara for the banquet, pairing it with long diamond earrings with pearl pendant drops. She also wore one of the most interesting jewels from the Dutch royal collection: the Diamond and Pearl Devant de Corsage. The intricate corsage ornament, which dates to the early nineteenth century, is set with pearls and white and pink diamonds.

If the combination of the tiara, brooch, and dress looks familiar, that’s because Máxima wore the same gown and jewels for a gala dinner for the Diplomatic Corps in April 2019. (She wore different earrings with the ensemble on that occasion.)

This time around, Máxima also wore a pearl bangle on her right wrist, stacked with her diamond wedding bracelet, and a pearl and diamond ring on her right hand. The small ribbon and badge pinned to the dress is the Decoration of Honour for Services to the Republic of Austria, which she also wore earlier in the day.