AMADEUS Story
Sisi - between palace and freedom
The 19th-century Austrian Empress Elisabeth, affectionately know as "Sisi", has had her story retold countless times on screen.
Beautiful, tragic, powerful – it is easy to understand why the tale of this ill-fated royal beauty has captured the imagination. She enjoyed travelling and horse riding, relaxing in the peace and quiet in the Royal Palace of Gödöllő and the untamed power of the wind and the waves. She even had an anchor tattooed on her shoulder in homage to the latter.
At the age of 16, Sisi’s mother took her from Linz up the Danube to Vienna, where she was to marry Emperor Franz Joseph. He was head over heels in love with her … she, on the other hand, felt as if she were being sold. To the outside world, the two are a dream couple. Privately, though, Sisi was suffering under the burden of the crown. She felt trapped in the strict etiquette imposed at Schönbrunn Palace and the Hofburg in Vienna. Soon, though, as we say nowadays, life got in the way.
A lung disease, of all things, granted Sisi her freedom. When her doctor advised her to travel the Mediterranean and breathe in sea air, she jumped at the chance to leave Austria. When she returned to Vienna years later, the shy girl had become a self-confident woman who had meanwhile climbed mountains and become one of the best equestrians in the world.
Sisi also made her mark as a queen and empress. When Austria’s unification with Hungary was finalised through the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, creating the Austro-Hungarian Empire, she was crowned queen in Budapest and given the Royal Palace of Gödöllő as a gift. She loved this little paradise at the gates of Budapest and it became her refuge away from the royal ceremonies. Indeed, she spent over 2,000 days there, preferably in spring and autumn, when life begins to blossoms … and then fades again. She died on a beach promenade in Geneva, stabbed in the heart by an anarchist.
Her memory lives on, though … on the Danube, Sisi is palpable in many places. In Budapest, for instance, in the Royal Palace of Gödöllő, in St. Matthias Church or on the Elisabeth Bridge, as well as in Vienna’s Schönbrunn Palace.
Be enchanted by the beauty of the Danube on an AMADEUS cruise – following in the footsteps of Sisi:
