Vienna Hofburg - Imperial Apartments, Sisi Museum, Silver Collection

In this room the conferences of ministers took place which were always chaired by the emperor himself. The marble bust and the sword of honour on the right beside the far wall niche recall Field Marshal Radetzky, one of the most renowned military leaders of the monarchy. He was immortalised in the Radetzky March composed in his honour by Johann Strauss the Elder. The paintings show battle scenes from the Hungarian revolution of 1849. Through the open door in the background you can take a look at the “Emperor’s Wardrobe” which during Franz Joseph’s era contained wardrobes and chests of drawers in which the emperor’s clothing was kept. Franz Joseph invariably wore military uniform. Only on private journeys did he wear civilian dress; when out shooting he wore Lederhosen, a green waistcoat, walking boots and a Styrian hat.www.hofburg-wien.at | Download Tour-Guide (PDF)© by Schloß Schönbrunn Kultur- und Betriebsges.m.b.H.

Emperor Franz Joseph took his responsibility as the emperor of a multi-national empire very seriously and saw his role not in the pomp of official receptions but rather as the “foremost official” of his empire, which numbered 56 million inhabitants. He thus spent most of each day in his study scrutinizing all the official documents that required his signature. His working day began before 5 am and did not end until late in the evening after attendance at official dinners, receptions or ballroom festivities. Behind the writing-desk and on the left-hand wall are portraits of Elisabeth by Franz Xaver Winterhalter showing the empress with her hair loose. These paintings were his favourite portraits of his “Angel Sisi”, as Franz Joseph called his beloved wife. The open “jib” or concealed door in the background leads into the room of the emperor’s personal valet-EN-chambre, Eugen Ketterl. Responsible for Franz Joseph’s personal welfare, he was at the emperor’s

When the imperial couple moved into separate sleeping quarters, this room became the emperor’s bedroom. Franz Joseph slept on this simple iron bed, a habit reflecting the rather Spartan lifestyle preferred by the emperor. He began his day long before daybreak, as a rule at half-past three in the morning. Only if he had attended late-night functions the night before did he allow himself another hour‘s sleep. First the emperor was bathed by an attendant in a rubber tub which was set up in his bedroom every day. The simple dressing-table for his daily toilette that you can see by the bed indicates not only that Franz Joseph preferred the modest furnishings of his private chambers but that he rejected any kind of luxury as superfluous. After he had dressed, he knelt at his prayer-stool to say his morning prayers. Afterwards breakfast was served to the emperor in his study.www.hofburg-wien.at | Download Tour-Guide (PDF)© by Schloß Schönbrunn Kultur- und Betriebsges.m.b.H.

The decoration of the room is largely from the 18th century while the furnishings date from Franz Joseph’s time. Like all the rooms in the Hofburg it was heated by ceramic stoves. These stoves were originally stoked with wood by the “imperial-royal court stove-stokers” from outside the room via a “heating passage” that ran behind the walls of the room to avoid making the rooms dirty. Gradually from 1824 onwards a hot-air heating system invented by an Austrian scientist called Meissner was installed to supply the stoves with hot air.www.hofburg-wien.at | Download Tour-Guide (PDF)© by Schloß Schönbrunn Kultur- und Betriebsges.m.b.H.

During Franz Joseph’s time this room was used as a smoking room to which the gentlemen could retire, as it was considered impolite to smoke in the presence of ladies. Today the room commemorates Emperor Maximilian of Mexico, Franz Joseph’s younger brother. His portrait hangs on the right-hand wall. Maximilian was offered the crown of Mexico in 1864 and despite the difficult political situation there accepted it at the urging of his ambitious wife, Charlotte of Belgium, whose portrait hangs on the left-hand wall. Shortly after the couple arrived in Mexico, France withdrew its support, which meant that Maximilian was at the mercy of the revolutionary forces under the command of Benito Juarez. He was taken prisoner and eventually executed in 1867. This is the last room of the emperor’s apartments.www.hofburg-wien.at | Download Tour-Guide (PDF)© by Schloß Schönbrunn Kultur- und Betriebsges.m.b.H.

From 1857 Elisabeth occupied the main floor of the Amalia Wing which was adjacent to the emperor’s apartments. Elisabeth used this room both as her private drawing-room and as her bedroom. The bed stood in the middle of the room and was shielded by a folding screen. At the writing-desk in the far window embrasure Elisabeth attended to her correspondence and wrote some of her numerous poems. Today a facsimile of her Will is displayed on the desk. www.hofburg-wien.at | Download Tour-Guide (PDF)© by Schloß Schönbrunn Kultur- und Betriebsges.m.b.H.

The dressing-cum-exercise room was the empress’s most important and at the same time most personal room and one where she spent most of her time. On the left you can see the empress’s dressing table where she sat for two to three hours a day while having her hair dressed. The empress utilised these hours for reading and learning foreign languages. Besides English and French Elisabeth also spoke perfect Hungarian. Above all, she loved Greek antiquity and mythology; on the small chair beside the dressing table sat her Greek Reader, Constantin Christomanos, who read extracts from Homer’s Iliad or Odyssee to Elisabeth while her hair was being elaborately dressed, or checked the Greek exercises completed by the empress, who was also learning Ancient and Modern Greek. Here in this room – to the horror and incomprehension of the court household – the empress also went through her daily exercise programme in order to preserve her slender figure and keep fit. Facing you are the wall bars

From the dressing room you now proceed – as Elisabeth once did – to the empress’s bathroom. On the right in the short passage to the bathroom you can take a look at the empress’s lavatory. The water closet of painted porcelain is in the shape of a dolphin, and beside it is a small washbasin. www.hofburg-wien.at | Download Tour-Guide (PDF)© by Schloß Schönbrunn Kultur- und Betriebsges.m.b.H.

Beyond her dressing room Elisabeth had a bathroom in the modern sense of the word installed in 1876, the first member of the imperial family to do so. On the left is the empress’s bathtub, made of galvanised sheet copper; unfortunately the original fixtures and the wooden insert she used for bathing have not survived. Here Elisabeth took her baths, often steam or oil baths, sometimes bathing in cold water to stimulate her circulation. It was here, too, that her ankle-length hair was washed with a special mixture of egg yolk and Cognac, a procedure that took a whole day. The authentic linoleum floor-covering is particularly interesting in that it was the latest invention of the times. The door now leads you into the “Bergl Rooms”, which probably served the empress as dressing rooms.www.hofburg-wien.at | Download Tour-Guide (PDF)© by Schloß Schönbrunn Kultur- und Betriebsges.m.b.H.

The “Bergl Rooms” are named after the artist Johann Bergl, who decorated these rooms with mural paintings around 1766. Covering all the walls up to the ceiling, the murals transport the visitor into a luxuriant landscape of exotic flora and fauna. Stay a few minutes and give yourself time to discover the myriad details such as tiny birds, butterflies or exotic fruit that give life to this imaginary landscape. From here you now enter the empress’s Small Salon. But before you turn right, take a look on your left at the Large Salon of the empress, Room 71. www.hofburg-wien.at | Download Tour-Guide (PDF)© by Schloß Schönbrunn Kultur- und Betriebsges.m.b.H.

Elisabeth used this room primarily as a reception room. The marble statue in the corner by Antonio Canova represents the muse Polyhymnia and was sent to Vienna in 1816 as a gift of the Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia to Emperor Franz I. The table set with breakfast things serves as a reminder that the imperial couple occasionally breakfasted together here, a circumstance recorded in the contemporaneous drawing in front of you.www.hofburg-wien.at | Download Tour-Guide (PDF)© by Schloß Schönbrunn Kultur- und Betriebsges.m.b.H.

You are now in the empress’s Small Salon. This room was originally hung with portraits of Emperor Franz Joseph and their children, Gisela, Rudolf and Marie Valerie. www.hofburg-wien.at | Download Tour-Guide (PDF)© by Schloß Schönbrunn Kultur- und Betriebsges.m.b.H.

Via the Eagle Staircase in the adjoining Leopoldine Wing the empress accessed her apartments through the guards’room and the antechamber. The paintings on the wall take us back to the 18th century, to the time of Maria Theresa. It was this epoch that provided the model for the prevailing neo-Rococo style of interiors favoured by the court during the reign of Franz Joseph. Two of the paintings show scenes from the famous operas Il parnasso confuso by Gluck and Il trionfo d’amore by Gassmann performed by Maria Theresa’s children. One of the paintings shows the empress’s youngest daughter, Marie Antoinette, dancing in a ballet.www.hofburg-wien.at | Download Tour-Guide (PDF)© by Schloß Schönbrunn Kultur- und Betriebsges.m.b.H.

The apartments in the north end of the Amalia Wing (towards Ballhausplatz) were occupied by Tsar Alexander of Russia during the Congress of Vienna between 1814 and 1815, when all the sovereigns of Europe gathered in Vienna to redivide Europe following the defeat of Napoleon. When Empress Elisabeth occupied the Amalia Wing, these rooms were used for the empress’s private functions. Between 1916 and 1918, the last Austrian emperor, Karl 1, used this suite for his official rooms.www.hofburg-wien.at | Download Tour-Guide (PDF)© by Schloß Schönbrunn Kultur- und Betriebsges.m.b.H.

Last used by Emperor Karl I as a reception room, the Red Salon is decorated with precious tapestries made by the Gobelin factory in Paris in 1772 and 1776. The medallions in these hangings are based on paintings by François Boucher. The furniture, the screen and the fire screen are also upholstered in tapestry. The ensemble formed a part of the gifts given by the French king, Louis XVI, to his brother-in-law, Emperor Joseph II.www.hofburg-wien.at | Download Tour-Guide (PDF)© by Schloß Schönbrunn Kultur- und Betriebsges.m.b.H.

In this room you can see a table as it would have been laid for a dinner attended by the emperor’s immediate family during the time of Franz Joseph. Banquets only took place in the great State Rooms of the imperial residence. The table is laid according to the strict guidelines that regulated court ceremonial and which even governed dinners attended by the emperor’s immediate family. The table was always festively decked; in the middle stood gilded centrepieces decorated with flowers, fruit and sweetmeats. On silver cover plates lay elaborately folded damask napkins. Places were only laid for one course at a time. For soup and dessert porcelain plates were used, while all other courses were served on silver plates. The silver cutlery bore the imperial double eagle. Each course was accompanied by a different wine, served in a special glass. The green glasses were used for Rhenish wines. In addition, each person had his or her own wine and water carafes as well as an individual salt-cellar. In orde