Queen Letizia Wears Queen Ena’s Stunning Royal Diamonds in Barcelona

The King and Queen of Spain headed to Barcelona to celebrate an iconic press institution on Monday, with Queen Letizia wearing some of their most important diamonds for the occasion.

King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia headed to the Maritime Museum of Barcelona on Monday afternoon to help commemorate the 50th anniversary of El Pais, one of Spain’s most important newspapers. During the event, the King highlighted the importance of press outlets like El Pais, noting that he and Queen Letizia wished “to congratulate a vibrant newsroom that keeps the pulse of the news, with great professional effort on both sides of the Atlantic. A global newspaper with a liberal spirit, a pro-European vocation, and an Ibero-American perspective.”

Queen Letizia, who was of course a print and broadcast journalist herself before marrying King Felipe in 2004, wore an elegant black cocktail dress for the celebration.

It’s the same midi-length dress that we saw her wear during the state visit to Egypt last September. On that occasion, she wore a pair of tiny lightning bolt earrings set with black diamonds. For yesterday’s reception, though, she went with much more substantial jewels.

Indeed, Letizia brought out a major diamond necklace and enormous diamond cluster earrings. These are some of the grandest pieces from the joyas de pasar, the collection of jewelry assembled by Felipe’s great-grandmother, Queen Ena. She indicated in her will that she wished for the jewels to pass from monarch to monarch so that they could be worn by the Queen of Spain.

Here’s a look at Queen Ena wearing the earrings and the necklace (in a much longer, sautoir-style setting) with other pieces of jewelry, including the fleur-de-lis tiara that also remains with the Spanish royals today and a necklace set with emeralds she inherited from Empress Eugénie of France. The emeralds were later sold.

Queen Letizia has worn the earrings and the necklace on many occasions since her husband’s accession to the throne in 2014. She memorably chose them for this Annie Leibovitz portrait, taken at the Royal Palace in Madrid in 2024.

Here’s another look at Letizia wearing the diamonds on Monday. The wattage of these is just astounding. Letizia’s decision to wear them is surely a nod to her deep respect for the profession of journalism. After all, it’s not every day she wears the biggest bling in her jewelry box for an anniversary reception.