new Communist government gave them 48 hours to leave the country because the state was declared republic after a referendum, although the queen wanted to leave Bulgaria after the execution of Prince Kiril on 1 February 1945. Late years After initially fleeing to Alexandria in the Kingdom of Egypt, to join her father, King Victor Emmanuel III, they moved on to Madrid. In 1962 Simeon II married and Queen Giovanna moved to Estoril, on the Portuguese Riviera, where she lived for the rest of her life, apart from a brief return to Bulgaria in 1993, when she visited the site of Boris's grave and was present at the reburial of his heart. She is buried in the Communal Cemetery of Assisi, Italy, where she had married King Boris III in 1930. Honours National House of Savoy: Knight Grand Cordon of the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus : Knight Grand Cross Honour and Devotion of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, 3rd First Class Royal Family of Two Sicilies: Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Order of Francis I House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha-Koháry: Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Order of Saint Alexander, in Diamonds, 1933 Foreign Austrian Imperial and Royal Family: Dame of the Imperial and Royal Order of the Starry Cross Bavarian Royal Family: Dame Grand Cross of the Royal Order of Theresa Russian Imperial Family: Dame Grand Cordon of the Imperial Order of Saint Catherine Yugoslavian Royal Family: Dame Grand Cross of the Royal Order of Saint Sava Arms Patronage : Patron of the 10th Cavalry regiment of Queen Ioanna Ancestry Sources Boris III of Bulgaria 1894–1943, by Pashanko Dimitroff, London, 1986, Crown of Thorns by Stephane Groueff, Lanham MD., and London, 1987, The Daily Telegraph, Obituary for "HM Queen Ioanna of the Bulgarians", London, 28 February 2000. References 1907 births 2000 deaths House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (Bulgaria) Italian princesses Princesses of Savoy Bulgarian consorts Queen mothers Knights Grand Cross of the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus Knights of Malta Grand Crosses of the Order of St. Sava Italian Roman Catholics Bulgarian Roman Catholics Nobility from Rome Italian people of Montenegrin descent Italian exiles Daughters of emperors Daughters of kings