The Chancellery Wing and Amalienburg were where Franz Joseph and his wife Elizabeth lived: The Imperial Apartments, as they’re known, cover the largest area that the general public can visit, but photography isn’t allowed. It’s not a great loss in one sense because most of the 24 rooms aren’t what you would call photogenic, but it’s still a shame from a historical point of view.

When Franz Joseph I became Emperor in 1848 he inherited a whole load of problems which resulted in him agreeing to a dual monarchy with Hungary in 1867; but if nothing else, it allowed him to rule in relative peace for the next 45 years.

If the Emperor had skills in placating his adversaries on the international stage, it seems that those skills didn’t stretch as far the marital bedroom because the relationship with his wife, Elizabeth, has drawn comparisons with Prince Charles and Princess Diana. Nicknamed Sissi, Elizabeth married Franz Joseph at the tender age of sixteen, but like Diana, she wasn’t brought up in such a formal household as the one into which she was thrust.

Right from the start she never met eye to eye with her domineering mother-in-law who has been described as the “only man in the Hofburg”. The story of Sissi  is told in the Sissi Museum which is housed in six apartments named after Archduke Stephan Viktor. It describes (along with some of her personal items) of what life was like for the girl from the Bavarian House of Wittelsbach. It’s a long and tormented story that was intriguing enough for a film to be made about her. I haven’t seen the film, but from what I’ve read, she was a beautiful young lady with a very unhappy life.

She had three children, the first of which died in infancy under the care of her mother-in-law. Her third, a son and heir apparent, died in a murder/suicide with his mistress, and her sister died in a fire. It’s no wonder then that the marriage didn’t work, and she lived most of the time she spent at the Hofburg in the Amalienburg – so near, and yet so far away from her husband.

Her life ended, not unlike Princess Diana’s, in tragedy. In 1898, while she was visiting Geneva, an Italian anarchist, Luigi Lucheni, stabbed her to death. She wasn’t a particular target, just somebody who represented everything he despised. By now the Emperor and Empress were estranged, and when Franz Joseph heard the news it is said that he was relieved that her death wasn’t caused by suicide.

The YouTube video below, explaining the events of the assassination,  is courtesy of wunderkammerchannel.

Tickets for the Imperial Apartments and Sissi Museum also include entry to the Imperial Silver Collection (Silberkammer). Not to be confused with The Imperial Treasury (Schatzkammer) which I’ll be talking about in a minute, the Silver Collection is housed in the former Court Silver and Table Room, and consists of objects that were necessary for the running of the royal household, such as kitchenware and crockery. This may all sound a bit mundane, but royal courts never did anything by halves and some of the items on display are quite staggering. You can judge for yourself because for some reason, photography was allowed in the Silberkammer when I was here, although I’m not sure that it is now.

The most surprising thing of all where photography is concerned is that in the Imperial Treasury, where the Hapsburg Empire’s equivalent of the Crown Jewels are kept, you are allowed to take as many photographs as you like, as long as you don’t use flash.

Being affiliated to the Kunsthistorisches (Art History) Museum and not the Imperial Apartments/Sissi Museum, you will need to buy a separate ticket, but in my opinion worth the extra charge. To get there you will need to walk through the Swiss Gate into the Swiss Courtyard – the oldest part of the palace.

The Treasury’s collections are divided into two – secular, and ecclesiastical; and before I go any further, I would like to say that I would find it difficult to argue with anybody who thinks that royalty and religious houses shouldn’t have been able to amass treasures like these: But that’s life, and I’d be a hypocrite if I said that I didn’t enjoy looking at all these remarkable objects. I suppose it’s a sort of historical voyeurism if you like.

Below are some of the exhibits in the collection.

The Austrian Imperial Crown (below) was created for Emperor Rudolf II in 1602 and made in Prague by Jan Vermayen. It’s a superb piece of craftsmanship comprising of three main parts, symbolising Kingship, Imperial Sovereignty and the King’s Divine Right. As remarkable as this royal crown is, I’m going to leave you with another one – the eight-sided gold Imperial Crown of the Holy Roman Empire. Not only is it encrusted with precious stones, it’s been around for over a thousand years – which makes it older than the Hapsburg Dynasty itself.

It’s not the end of the Hapsburg story yet though because I’ll be showing you around more of the Hofburg labyrinth in part 3.

POSTED – APRIL 2022