Imperial Apartments
Sisi Museum
Silver Collection

Imperial Apartments

The Imperial Apartments

The Hofburg was the residence of the Habsburgs for over 600 years and thus the centre of the Holy Roman Empire. Apart from its function as the seat of government and administrative centre, the Hofburg was also the winter residence of the imperial family. From the 18th century onwards the court spent the summer at Schönbrunn Palace.

Virtual Tour

1
2
3
4
5
6
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
1
2
2
2
2
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
1

Death

2

The Sisi Myth

3

Girlhood

4

At Court

5

Flight

6

Assassination

1

Emperor's Staircase

2

Trabant Guards Room

3

Audience Waiting Room

4

Audience Chamber

5

Conference Room

6

Study

7

Bedroom

8

Large Salon

9

Small Salon

10

Living Room & Bedroom

11

Dressing & Exercise Room

12

Lavatory and Bathroom

13

Berglroom

14

Large Salon of Empress Elisabeth

15

Small Salon of Empress Elisabeth

16

Large Anteroom

17

Alexander Apartments & Red Salon

18

Dining Room

1

Court Kitchen

2

Old Court Silver and Table Rooms

3

The Court on the Road

4

Milan Centrepiece

5

Flower Plates

6

Foot-washing ceremony

7

Diverse Dinner Service

8

Sèvres und Meissner Service

9

Old French Centrepiece

10

The Minton Dessert Service

Death

The tour though the Sisi museum starts with Elisabeths tragic death.

Learn more Tickets

The Sisi Myth

Elisabeth has gone down in history as an empress of eternal youthfulness and beauty. For more than three decades she was regarded as the most beautiful queen in Europe.

Learn more Tickets

Girlhood

The tour through the Sisi museum gives an insight into the empresses life, from her birth on Christmas Eve in 1837, her childhood in Bavaria, to her engagement with Franz Joseph in 1853.

Learn more Tickets

At Court

From the start, Elisabeth rejected this life, criticising the structures of the court and refusing to accept the justification for the rigid etiquette that prevailed there.

Learn more Tickets

Flight

Having put immense pressure on the emperor during the negotiations with Hungary for the Compromise, Elisabeth was forbidden by her husband to interfere in politics ever again.

Learn more Tickets

Assassination

"Now it has happened just as she always wished: quickly, painlessly without medical consultations, without long, anxious days of worry for her loved ones."

Learn more Tickets

Emperor's Staircase

The entrance to the Sisi Museum and the Imperial Apartments.

Learn more Tickets

Trabant Guards Room

Coming from the Emperor’s Staircase the visitor entered this room in which the Trabanten lifeguards kept watch night and day.

Learn more Tickets

Audience Waiting Room

Emperor Franz Joseph gave general audiences twice a week, at which any of the subjects of his empire could attend to present a matter of their concern to the emperor.

Learn more Tickets

Audience Chamber

Over the course of his long reign, Franz Joseph gave audiences to around 260,000 individuals.

Learn more Tickets

Conference Room

This room was used for the ministerial conferences which were always chaired by the emperor. It could also be entered from the room occupied by the duty aide-de-camp, who announced the presence of the ministers to the emperor.

Learn more Tickets

Study

‘As soon as the children were capable of eating on their own they were allowed to lunch with him in his study – often as many as eight at a time.’

Learn more Tickets

Bedroom

When the imperial couple moved into separate bedrooms, Franz Joseph had a portable brown-painted iron bedstead set up in this room, an arrangement he also used at Schönbrunn, Budapest, Laxenburg, Bad Ischl and Gödöllö.

Learn more Tickets

Large Salon

"… he [i.e. Franz Joseph] liked dallying in these small drawing rooms when he was visited by his family, his brother, his grandchildren, nephews etc. There in their company he would take a cup of tea at the twilight hour, chatting with them, and above all, enquiring after their wishes…"

Learn more Tickets

Small Salon

The Small Salon served as a smoking room and is today a memorial room to Emperor Maximilian of Mexico.

Learn more Tickets

Living Room & Bedroom

Originally this room was the bedroom of the imperial couple. In 1870 Franz Joseph moved into a separate bedroom in the Imperial Chancellery Wing.

Learn more Tickets

Dressing & Exercise Room

The Dressing Room/Exercise Room was where Elisabeth spent most of her time. This was where her day began, in the winter at six o’clock in the morning, starting with her daily hair-dressing ritual.

Learn more Tickets

Lavatory and Bathroom

Facing the Amalia Wing courtyard, behind the Dressing Room, are the empress’s Lavatory and Bathroom, which were refurbished in 1876 during Elisabeth’s occupancy.

Learn more Tickets

Berglroom

This rooms are painted with trompe l’oeil landscape murals commissioned by Empress Maria Theresa and executed by Johann Wenzel Bergl.

Learn more Tickets

Large Salon of Empress Elisabeth

This room was used by Elisabeth as a reception room. When the empress was resident at the Hofburg, the imperial couple occasionally took breakfast together in this room.

Learn more Tickets

Small Salon of Empress Elisabeth

During Elisabeth’s time this room was used as an additional reception room.

Learn more Tickets

Large Anteroom

Originally Empress Elisabeth’s apartments were accessed via the Eagle Stairs, which connected the Leopoldine Wing and the Amalia Wing. When the Leopoldine Wing was converted into the offices of the Federal President in 1946 access to the Imperial Apartments was blocked up.

Learn more Tickets

Alexander Apartments & Red Salon

The Alexander Apartments were used by Empress Elisabeth for dinners and receptions.

Learn more Tickets

Dining Room

Once a week on Sunday the imperial family foregathered at a family dinner, which every Habsburg currently in Vienna was obliged to attend.

Learn more Tickets

Imperial apartements

Court ceremonial dictated that each member of the family had their own apartment or suite in one of the numerous palace wings. Whereas most of these apartments today house a range of museums as well as offices, government ministries and the presidential chancellery, the Imperial Chancellery Wing and the Amalia Residence, which contained the apartments of Franz Joseph and Elisabeth, are today open to the public.

Discover now

Discover more

Sisi Museum

Since 2004 the Sisi Museum has been housed in the Stephan apartments, so named after Archduke Stephan Viktor.

More Info

Silver Collection

The former Court Silver and Table Room, today the Silver Collection, is a unique collection of cultural and historical importance, comprising objects and items that were required for the court household and its organisation.

More Info

Further Reading

You are being transferred to the Imperial Austria Ticket Shop.

If you are not transferred automatically, please click here.