When Queen Letizia stepped out in Barcelona wearing the chaton necklace of Victoria Eugenia and the matching earrings, that wasn't a fashion choice - it was an institutional pose. The necklace is part of an eight-piece set inherited from Victoria Eugenia, the last queen of the old Spanish regime, which represents the powerful system of the "joyas de pasar" - jewels that don't belong to the person, but to the position.

In Victoria Eugenia's will, it is written that the jewels are to go to her son Juan de Borbón, who passed them to Juan Carlos, who finally landed them with Felipe VI and Letizia. Not ornaments - legal objects that travel across generations.

The collection has eight pieces, and the most recognisable is the tiara Fleur-de-Lis from 1906, which Letizia has worn only six times since 2017. The 37-pearl necklace with Russian pearls was a gift from Alfonso XII in 1878. The two chaton necklaces were a wedding gift from Alfonso XIII. The chaton earrings are her most frequent pick from this collection.

There are also pieces Letizia has never worn - the four-strand pearl necklace sits in the vault, unused. The same with Queen Sofía. The jewellery doesn't just travel through queens - it decides for itself when it appears.

For the Balkans these stories read like a foreign brochure. But they're not: this is what institutions count as real wealth - not money, but an inherited symbol that proves the line of power. The Macedonian problem is similar, only the inverse - we don't know where our 19th-century crosses are, or who inherited the icons that have disappeared into state archives.