Vienna Hofburg - Imperial Apartments, Sisi Museum, Silver Collection

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.