An ill-fated marriage

From the very first day, the young and spirited empress felt caged by the rigid rituals of
the Viennese court. The honeymoon at Laxenburg Palace turned into a disaster; the
young emperor spent his days at his desk while his wife cried her heart out in the park. A
life with strict duties and ceremonies at the court lay in front of her. Over the following
years, the couple travelled between various courts and homes: from the Imperial Palace to
Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna, between the Imperial Palace Innsbruck and Leopoldskron
Castle Salzburg, and between Hof Palace and the Imperial Villa in Bad Ischl. But for Sisi,
weeks of monotonous protocol and constraints turned into months, months into years, and
the joy of an adventurous, gilded life never reached her. She only saw restrictions and
suffered under the control the imperial court had over her. Even the birth of their first
daughter Sophie Friederike couldn’t change that: Sophie died at the tender age of two.
Shortly after Sophie came Gisela. Then, people cheered the birth of Rudolf, heir to the
throne. At the age of 21, Sisi was a mother of three. But her children grew up lonely and
practically without a mother. 

Guided by her independent spirit, she began to rebel against the omnipresent expectations
of the court and yearned to emancipate herself. She neither strived to be a devoted, quiet
wife nor a doting mother, and she certainly did not want to be a representative figure of
the vast empire. Franz Joseph accommodated his unorthodox and freedom-loving wife as
far as his position and sense of tradition would allow. It was not far enough. Sisi fell ill
and felt trapped in a golden cage. At one point, she broke out. 
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Sisi Museum Vienna

Austrian National Tourist Office / Cross Media Redaktion
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Sisi Museum Vienna

Austrian National Tourist Office / Cross Media Redaktion
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Sisi Museum Vienna
Austrian National Tourist Office / Cross Media Redaktion
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Sisi Museum Vienna
Austrian National Tourist Office / Cross Media Redaktion
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Sisi Museum - Vienna Hofburg
Austrian National Tourist Office / Cross Media Redaktion
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 Restless Travels

Her hasty departure from Vienna to the Greek island of Corfu was - with brief
interruptions - the beginning of a lifelong odyssey. For the rest of her days,
Elisabeth of Austria remained wandering the world in search of her true self.
Restlessly she moved from spa town to spa town, staying only a few weeks at a
time before moving on. She spent her days with a rigorous sports program (her
maids regularly had to be picked up by carriage because they could not keep up
with the empress). By then she had long been considered the best horsewoman in
the world. Sisi loved the sea, sailed in the worst storms, and had an anchor
tattooed on her shoulder.

 In addition to her stringent sports program, she put herself on an excessively strict
diet and never weighed more than 103 lbs (47 kg). She only made a few
exceptions, such as violet ice cream from the Demel Confectioner to the Court and
the famous Original Sacher-Torte, a chocolate cake from the Hotel Sacher Vienna.

At some point, she no longer allowed portraits of herself: the last photo of Sisi was
taken at age thirty, the last painting at age forty. No one except her chambermaids
saw her face, which she hid behind a veil, fan, or umbrella as soon as she left her
 room. It was as if she had decided to remain forever that radiantly beautiful girl
with whom the emperor had fallen in love at first sight on that fateful day in Bad
Ischl.

Franz-Joseph-Vault in Vienna
Kapuzinergruft GmbH / Robert Vanis
Capuchins' Crypt
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The Last Chapter

The empress's death in 1898 was as unusual as her life. Sisi did not notice her injury at
first. On the banks of Lake Geneva, an assassin thrust a sharpened file into her heart.
Elisabeth thought the man had merely knocked her over, and she straightened up,
apologised to passers-by for her mishap, and hurried with her chambermaid to the ship in
which she was about to sail across the lake. It was only on board that the empress
collapsed.

"What actually happened?" were her last words. Minutes later, the woman who was to
become the most famous of all Habsburgs died at the age of 60. Only a single drop of
blood stained her dress. It was black, just like the one she had worn on that fateful day in
Bad Ischl.