Background
Amalie was born and raised in Paris, although the family seat of the Salm-Kyrburgs was Kirn, which today is part of the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate.
Amalie was born and raised in Paris, although the family seat of the Salm-Kyrburgs was Kirn, which today is part of the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate.
Early She was the eighth child in the family and was baptised at the Church of Saint-Sulpice. (The hotel eventually was seized by the Revolutionary government and is today the Palais de la Légion d"Honneur)
Amalie survived the Revolution and in 1797, she used her connections to find out the location of the graves, which had been kept hidden from the French public. She secretly purchased the land on rue de Picpus and had it opened up to the rest of the garden, which is today called the Picpus Cemetery.
Despite her nobility, the princess maintained good relations with a number of influential figures of the Revolution, including Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand and even Joséphine de Beauharnais, widow of her lover and later the wife of Napoleon Bonaparte.
A few years later Amalie successfully used her contacts at the court of Napoleon to broker the Mediatisation of the houses of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen and Hohenzollern-Hechingen. In 1808, after 20 years in Paris, the princess returned to Sigmaringen.
Her name and the family coat of arms is carved into the rock. Her great-grandson was Albert I, King of the Belgians from 1909 to 1934.
Another great-grandson, Prince Karl of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, was crowned King of Romania in 1866 as Carol I.