Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Yourticket grants youadmission tothree separate exhibits, which you'll visit onapretty
straightforward one-way route. The first floor holds a collection of precious porcelain and
silver knick-knacks
(Silberkammer)
. You then go upstairs to the Sisi Museum, which has
displays about her life. This leads into the 20-odd rooms of Imperial Apartments
(Kaiserap-
partements),
starting in Franz Josef's rooms, then heading into the dozen rooms where his
wife Sisi lived.
Self-Guided Tour:
Your visit (and the excellent audioguide) starts on the ground
floor.
Imperial Porcelain and Silver Collection:
Here you'll see the Habsburg court's vast
tableware collection, which the audioguide actually manages to make fairly interesting.
Browse the collection to gawk at the opulence and to take in some colorful Habsburg trivia.
(Who'd have thunk that the court had an official way to fold a napkin—and that the tech-
nique remains a closely guarded secret?)
Once you're through all those rooms of dishes, climb the stairs—the same staircase used
by the emperors and empresses who lived here. At the top is a timeline of Sisi's life. Swipe
yourtickettopassthroughtheturnstile,considertheWC,andentertheroomwiththe
model
oftheHofburg.
Circletothefarsidetofindwhereyou'restandingrightnow,nearthesmal-
lest of the Hofburg's three domes. The Hofburg was the epicenter of one of Europe's great
political powers—600 years of Habsburgs lived here. The Hofburg started as a 13th-century
medieval castle (near where you are right now) and expanded over the centuries to today's
240,000-square-meter (60-acre) complex, now owned by the state. To the left of the dome
(as you face the facade) is the steeple of the Augustinian Church. It was there, in 1854, that
Franz Josef married 16-year-old Elisabeth of Bavaria, and their story began.
Sisi Museum:
Empress Elisabeth (1837-1898)—a.k.a. “Sisi”—was Franz Josef's mys-
terious, beautiful, and narcissistic wife. This museum traces her fabulous but tragic life. The
exhibit starts when her life ended and her legend began (see her death mask and pictures of
her funeral procession). You'll read bits of her poetic writing, see exact copies of her now-
lost jewelry, and learn about her escapes, dieting mania, and chocolate bills. Admire Sisi's
hard-earned thin waist (20 inches at age 16, 21 inches at age 50...after giving birth to four
children). The black statue in the dark room represents the empress after the suicide of her
son—aloof, thin, in black, with her back to the world. At the end, ponder the crude, knife-
like file that killed Sisi. (In 1898, while visiting Geneva, she was murdered by an Italian
anarchist.)
Imperial Apartments:
After the Sisi Museum, a one-way route takes you through a
series of royal rooms. The first room—as if to make clear that there was more to the Habs-
burgs than Sisi—shows a family tree tracing the Habsburgs from 1273 to their messy WWI
demise. From here, enter the private apartments of the royal family (Franz Josef's first, then
Sisi's).
