Elisabeth’s private life is at the center of the exhibition: her rebellion against court ceremony, her escape into a beauty cult, her obsession with being slim, athletic performance, and effusive poetry. The show focuses on Elisabeth's private life, her rebellion against the court ceremonial, her flight into beauty, sporting excellence, travel and rapturous poetry. From the carefree time as a young girl in Bavaria to the surprising engagement with the Austrian emperor to her 1898 assassination in Geneva, the museum shows the restless life of the legendary empress.

And does so using numerous objects: On view are, for example, original items of clothing, the reconstruction of the dress worn by the young bride on the evening before her wedding as well as the Hungarian coronation dress, famous portraits, a miniature secretaire with envelopes painted in Elisabeth's own hand, Sisi's watercolor painting box, a 63-piece first-aid kit and an accessible reconstruction of Sisi's luxurious imperial saloon car. Items on display from her childhood include her harp, which she brought with her from Bavaria.

Sisi's 6-piece mourning jewelry in onyz and jet, which she used to wear with her mourning dress following the death of her son Crown Prince Rudolph, is also on display here in its entirety. The black coat with egret feathers, which covered Sisi after her assassination on Lake Geneva and in which she was taken to the Hotel Beau Rivage, reminds one of the tragic incident as much as the death mask of the murdered empress.

In the Imperial Apartments and the Silver Collection you get a good impression of the daily life of the empire. And at the Hofburg Café you can pamper yourself with culinary delights.

Please note: The Sisi Museum, Imperial Apartments and Imperial Silver Collection can be visited with a single ticket!

Imperial Palace Overview

Sissi in the Movies – Furniture of an Empress

Find information about the imperial family Habsburg on "The World of Habsburgs"