Something to Declare

July 19, 2024: The Hofburg, Sisi, Sausage and Sachertorte

Today we went to the Habsburg downtown palace, the Hofburg.

This is where the Imperial/Royal Family lived when they weren’t summering at Schönbrunn. It’s also the home of the Sisi Museum. As previously noted, Emperor Franz Joseph ruled the Austro-Hungarian empire from 1848 (he was 18 at the time of his accession to the throne) until his death in 1916.

Franz Josef lived a spartan lifestyle, working from before daybreak into the late evening, and he slept in a simple iron bed:

Characterized as an “enlightened despot,” he gave personal access to his subjects. He held audiences twice a week, behind a standing lectern:

He would receive upwards of a hundred people in a single morning, and signal the end of the audience with a nod of his head.

In 1854, he married his first cousin, the 16-year-old half-sister of King Ludwig I of Bavaria. Her name was Elizabeth, known as Sisi. Here’s the happy couple:

TRIGGER WARNING! SOME OF THE FOLLOWING MAY INVOLVE UNHEALTHY BODY IMAGE ISSUES!

Sisi is famous for her eccentricities, including a preoccupation with her weight and appearance. She insisted on maintaining a 20-inch waist, which she accomplished with a very restricted diet, strenuous workout routines, and the use of very tight-laced corsets.

Due to the tightness of the corsets, she often had shortness of breath; the lacing process took up to an hour, out of a total dressing time of three hours. Sisi’s diet regimen included an “orange diet,” an “egg diet,” a “milk diet,” salted raw egg whites instead of lunch, and the occasional violet sorbet, alternating with starvation. She made frequent use of laxatives procured from the Royal Pharmacy.

Exercise included the use of ropes and dumbbells. Below is a photo of Sisi’s dressing/exercise room, which contained a chinning bar, wall bars, and rings attached to the door frame:

Her workout gear included a black silk dress with a long train, hemmed with ostrich feathers (perhaps the one in the montage above, lower right?).

And her hair, which was reportedly ankle-length. The Emperor’s desk was right below a painting that showed his wife with her hair billowing down in natural splendor:

Hair care would consume no less than three hours per day. Every three weeks, Sisi’s hair was washed in raw eggs and brandy, a process that might take an entire day. Obsessed with keeping wrinkles and other signs of aging at bay, she slept in a sort of mask lined inside with raw veal.

Sisi was reported to have had a difficult time as Empress, and is often likened to Princess Diana. She found the life in the court constricting, and spent much of her time in Hungary. Her son, Crown Prince Rudolf may have had similar feelings: In 1889, Rudolf and his mistress carried out a joint murder/suicide pact at the Imperial hunting lodge at Mayerling. Rudolf’s death devastated Sisi, and she withdrew from the court altogether, traveling in a private railway car,

and staying at a palace she’d had constructed on the Greek Island of Corfu. Sisi was visiting Geneva, Switzerland in 1898, when she was assassinated by an Italian anarchist.

On to more mundane and pleasant pastimes (e.g., food). We walked back to the Albertinaplatz and purchased a sausage from Bitzinger Sausage Stand (the one with the bunny on the roof, noted in July 14 blog post),

and then to the Café Sacher, where we picked up a take-out Sachertorte:

We learned that this iconic pastry (two layers of cake separated by apricot jam and covered in dark chocolate icing) was invented in 1832 by Franz Sacher, the 16-year-old assistant to the pastry chef of Prince Clemens von Metternich. It became world famous when Franz served it and Prince Clemens rejoiced at the first taste. We rejoiced as well.