I decided to check out the Habsburg royalty today. I toured the Imperial apartments (where the Habsburg’s lived other than summertime), the Sisi Museum (all about Emperor Franz Josef’s wife Elizabeth also called Sisi), and the Treasury (where all the Crown Jewels are kept).
A little bit of history… Franz Josef was and still is the longest reigning monarch (68 years). That record may soon be broken if Queen Elizabeth of England, currently at 65 years, lasts 3+ more years. God save the Queen! Lol
Sisi had a sad life, even for an Empress. She married Franz Josef at 16 (he was actually engaged to her 18 year old sister but liked Sisi better.) She was born in Bavaria near Munich and preferred the outdoors (horse back riding, hiking, etc) so when she became Empress she didn’t like being stuck at the palace with all the servants around so she traveled often. The people of Austria didn’t like her initially because she was never in Vienna. But she was tragically murdered and after that the people felt sorry for her and began liking her. She became kind of like a 19th century equivalent of Princess Diana.
Her murder was also bizarre. The man that killed Sisi was planning to kill the Prince of France in Geneva, Switzerland but the Prince’s plans changed and he did not go to Geneva. The killer heard Sisi was in Geneva and hated all royalty so he decided to kill her instead. He wanted to be a martyr but didn’t realize that when he killed her in Switzerland that they didn’t have the death penalty so he was sentenced to life in prison. He later committed suicide.
The Treasury had some amazing regalia including the Imperial Crown of Rudolph II, which later became the Austrian Imperial Crown, the cradle from Napoleon’s son, and the largest cut emerald in the world.
None of those places allowed pictures so I can’t show you any of the fun stuff. But I did go somewhere fun where I could take pics!
I figured you were getting tired of all the stately buildings and beautiful architecture so I included pics from this fun amusement park I found. It’s called Prater and it actually started as a public retreat back in 1766. In 1897, the giant Ferris wheel (the one with the big red box cars) was erected. I included a pic where the riders go really high in the air and spin around and then they drop to the ground. I caught a pic of them also dropping in mid air. I loved the Sombrero ride in front (is that politically correct? Lol). The other really tall ride were the swings that went up that high but it wasn’t running yet. It was a fun place.
I ended my day with a piece of the most famous Viennese dessert, the Sacher Torte with whipped cream. But first some history…
In 1832, Prince Wenzel von Metternich charged his personal chef with creating a special dessert for several important guests. The head chef, having taken ill, let the task fall to his sixteen-year-old apprentice, Franz Sacher, then in his second year of training in Metternich’s kitchen. The Prince is reported to have declared: “Let there be no shame on me tonight!” The torte created by Sacher on this occasion is said to have delighted Metternich’s guests and the rest is history. The Sacher Torte consists of a dense chocolate cake with a thin layer of apricot jam on top, coated in dark chocolate icing on the top and sides. Yum Yum!
Happy Monday to all! Hope everyone’s week is starting out good!
Jeff
The Wandering Italian 