The Hofburg Palace is the former home of the Austrian Royal Family . The oldest part of the building dates from the 16th century. The parts that we visited were the Chapel, the Royal Apartments, The Treasury and the China and Silver Collection. The Royal Apartments are dedicated to the memory of Emperor Franz Josef and his wife the Empress Elizabeth "Sisi". Their portraits by the famed artist Franz Xavier Winterhaulter are in the Grand Salon. Sisi is gorgeous in a white ball gown with stars in her hair and Franz Josef is dressed in a red and white military uniform. There is another Winterhaulter portait of Sisi in the Emperor's study which is informal with her very long hair hanging loose and this is said to be the emperor's favorite picture of his wife. Since she spent a great deal of time away from him it must have been cold comfort.
We had a headphone tour of the apartments which was quite interesting. As you begin the tour there is a large genealogy chart so that you can try to figure out who some of the people are. The rooms are of impressive size and the decorations are luxurious but there is an underlying sadness here for a time that has past and will never return.
One of the early rooms has lots of informal childhood pictures that give a pretty good idea of what kind of a life imperial children led. Some of their toys have been preserved. In Sisi's room her exercise equipment is still there waiting for her and we learned that she perhaps was one of the early anorexics. She was obsessed with keeping her figure and almost never ate. This caused problems at dinner parties where guests were not allowed to eat after the empress or emperor had finished, guests soon learned to eat before they came to a dinner party at the palace.
We got to walk through their personal rooms as well as the formal rooms and the dining room was especially attractive, set up for a small family dinner. I have included a picture that I took of it; photography was discouraged in the apartments.