What you didn't know about Sisi!

As you can read in the title of this post, this is about a story of a young woman who married an emperor. She lived in a beautiful palace called Schonbrunn Palace. Actually this wasn't there day-to-day palace, no this was their summer home! 

Can you imagine living in a place like this?

Ok, I know it is boring but as you might know I love history and I love random fact that are of no use what so ever..... so here we go:

• Schonbrunn is amongst other things mostly famous because of Empress Elisabeth of Austria.

Wikipedia

•  She got engaged to emperor Franz Joseph I, when she was only 15 years old (he was 23-years old)

Wikipedia

• Her family and friends called Elisabeth "Sisi".
• She had hair till her ankles, which took 3 hours everyday to brush an make ready for public duty. And which she washed it once every 2 weeks, this took a whole day! And yes she had a hair dresser.

http://eljen.net/elisabeth/sisibio.html

•  She was very unhappy and had a bad health.
• She always wore a corset due to which she looked even skinnier than she already was.
• She was 1.72m tall and was obsessed with her weight, she never weigh over 50 kg.
• She was murdered in Geneva when she was 60 years old. 

So when I was young we had this Christmas tradition, it was watching the Sisi movies on TV (in German) and these were just the most amazing movies when I was a little girl. Very romantic in an amazing setting. If you like the Sound of Music I am sure you will also love the movies! 

I always imagined going to Schonbrunn would confirm this romantic love story.... well guess what?! It ain't so romantic!!! Sisi was very unhappy, she was a little as possible in Vienna and with her husband. She almost never ate dinner together with her family due to her obsession with her weight, she even once said that she regretted getting married at such a young age and that she felt she was pushed in making a decision a young girl of her age could not make with overseeing the consequences.... So there you have it.....

 

I know it is tough right being an empress in this amazing place. In order to make you feel a bit better here are some pictures!

Hopefully there aren't too many pictures... Unfortunately we were not allowed to take any pictures inside the palace. We did do an audio tour, during I learned a lot more random facts!

Such as:

•  The famous Habsburger family ruled from this palace.
• Most famous Habsburger = Marie Antoinette who married Louis XVI from France.
• At an age of 6 years old the famous composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart performed for in Schonbrunn for the Empress Maria Theresa (mother of Marie Antoinette)

Ok I think it is time to draw an end to this post... I have loads more of random facts but I will keep them for another time. Also there should be some things left for you guys when you go and visit, otherwise you already everything :)

If (like me) you can't get enough, please click here and here  and here to get more information on empress Sisi, Schonbrunn and the Habsburg family.

I am going to sleep now (sounds like my own post makes me sleepy....) and dream of this palace and this amazing holiday. One more part is left, the part about my visit to Germany and the city where I studied for 2 years; Reutlingen.

See you all soon!