Friday, January 8, 2010

Sisi Museum-Imperial Museum


Sissi - Elisabeth Wittelsbach ( biograhy)
Sissi - Elisabeth Wittelsbach (1837 - 1898) Sissi was born as the daughter of Duke Maximilian and Duchess in Bavaria Louis. In 1853, she got to know her cousin Emporer Franz Joseph, who was going to marry Sissi's sister Helene. Franz Joseph fell in love with Sissi immediately and decided to marry instead of her sister. They are married, Elisabeth is 16 years. Love marriage did not work: Sisi was an independent girl and totally unprepared for a strict protocol in court, ambitious stepmother and busy husband, who fought against the revolutionary and separatist tendencies in the Habsburg Empire ... Viennese aristocracy was making fun of her and her mother in law Sophie took over control of their lives. Her children were taken from her and Sissi was barely allowed to see them, put her into a deep depression and illness. After two years of treatment and accommodation in Madeira, Corfu and Bavaria, Sissi returns with a new confidence in Vienna.

 She decided to take control of political affairs, and soon the interest in Hungary, a very troubled neighbor Austria. In 1867 she was crowned Queen of Hungary. Sissi was obsessed with her beauty and her perfect figure and care for your body, resulting in anorexia. Her very liberal ideas, her call for a republic structure and her effort for the poor and troublesome made her very popular with the Austrian people. 1870 has decided to withdraw from public life and tried to live a life of private individuals. On the 10th September, while walking through Geneva, she was killed by a young Italian anarchist.

Sisi Museum - Myth and Reality


The six rooms of the Sisi Museum explore the personality and life of this unusual empress.
The main focus is the private aspects of Elisabeth"s life, as revealed in her poetry wich allows us a direct insight into her personality: her rebellion against court ceremonial and her romantic, melancholy versifying.
Ceaselessly trying to escape from herself , the empress traveled incessantly, finally meeting a tragic end when she was assassinated in Geneva. Highlights include numerous objects connected with Elisabeth: a copy of the dress she wore at the ball given before her wending, the most famous portraitist   of the beautiful empress as well her jewelery. Further exhibits include the parasols  and fans owned by the reclusive empress, a partial reconstruction of the luxuriously appointed imperial saloon car, and empress death mask.


The imperial Apartments
the private surroundigs of the Habsbourg
The Hofbourg was residence of the Habsbourg dynasty for over 600 years. The magnificent Emperor Staircase leads up to the 19 state and privet rooms of Emperor Franz Joseph and empress Elisabeth. Restored over the past few years and furnished on historical authentic principles, these rooms convey the private atmosphere of the imperial couple s residential apartments. The imperial Apartments thus testfy not only to the stately splendor of the Habsbourg monarchy but also to the personal history of their occupation.


Highlights of the tour include the emperor s audience chamber, his study and bedroom. In adjoining apartments of the empress you will see her bedroom-cum-sitting room and the dress room in which the empress preformed her daily programme of gyimnastic. Recently the emprress bathroom has been opened to visitros for the first time.