6/17/14 Vienna - Sisi Museum

After the Silberkammer I went upstairs to the Sisi museum.  Sisi is the nickname of the Empress Elizabeth, who was mythologized after her assassination.  There are a couple famous movies about her and a musical.

They had some wigs demonstrating some of her common hairstyles.  She was famous for her long hair.

I think I could pull this one off.

Note to self: Acquire hair servants.

She washed her hair in a mix of egg yolk and cognac.  I've done egg rinses before, not sure what the point of the cognac would be.

Anyway, photography was forbidden in the museum itself, so I'm yanking pictures from the website.  There was information about her childhood and life at court.  Basically she became increasingly withdrawn and antisocial over the course of her life.  I really wish I could have photographed some of the dresses in more detail.

This is a reconstruction of a dress she wore to a ball in Bavaria before leaving for the Habsburg court.  An interesting feature is the use of Arabic script as a decoration in the green and gold embroidery on the overskirt.

There was also a reconstruction of the gown worn for the coronation as Queen of Hungary.

The Imperial Apartments were intended to portray the life of Kaiser Franz Joseph I and Kaiserin Elizabeth.  Kaiser Franz Joseph seemed to be a workaholic who started taking meetings at around 5:30am.  Sisi had her own 19th century workout room, which was interesting.  Alas, I couldn't take pictures there either but I bought a little book on the exhibits so I can show that to people when I get home.