Vienna Hofburg - Imperial Apartments, Sisi Museum, Silver Collection

Fans, veils and parasols become indispensable accessories for the empress from an early stage, enabling her to conceal her face from the gaze of curious strangers. Elisabeth hated being stared at. Aged fifty she wrote: “Perhaps later on I will go around in a veil all the time, and not even those closest to me shall see my face again.“ To go with her mourning dress, the empress wore jewellery made of black paste stones and jet. It was customary to avoid using precious gems for mourning jewellery, the plainness of the material serving to emphasise retreat from the world during the mourning period.www.hofburg-wien.at | Download Tour-Guide (PDF)© by Schloß Schönbrunn Kultur- und Betriebsges.m.b.H.