Silver Collection

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Imperial Apartments

A brief history

Silver Collection

The former Court Silver and Table Room in Vienna

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. Today the Silver Collection Museum gives visitors a fascinating insight into the culture of courtly dining in its various forms.

Please note that the silver collection will be closed from April 1, 2023 until further notice.

Thank you for your understanding.

Virtual Tour

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Death

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The Sisi Myth

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Girlhood

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At Court

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Flight

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Assassination

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Emperor's Staircase

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Trabant Guards Room

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Audience Waiting Room

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Audience Chamber

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Conference Room

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Study

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Bedroom

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Large Salon

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Small Salon

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Living Room & Bedroom

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Dressing & Exercise Room

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Lavatory and Bathroom

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Berglroom

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Large Salon of Empress Elisabeth

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Small Salon of Empress Elisabeth

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Large Anteroom

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Alexander Apartments & Red Salon

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Dining Room

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Court Kitchen

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Old Court Silver and Table Rooms

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The Court on the Road

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Milan Centrepiece

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Flower Plates

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Foot-washing ceremony

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Diverse Dinner Service

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Sèvres und Meissner Service

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Old French Centrepiece

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The Minton Dessert Service

Death

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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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."

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Emperor's Staircase

The entrance to the Sisi Museum and the Imperial Apartments.

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Trabant Guards Room

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

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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.

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Audience Chamber

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

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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.

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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.’

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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.

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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…"

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Small Salon

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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Berglroom

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

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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.

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Small Salon of Empress Elisabeth

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

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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.

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Alexander Apartments & Red Salon

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

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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.

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Silver Collection

This history of the Vienna Silver Chamber goes back to the fifteenth century.

The office of Silver Chamberlain is first documented at the Vienna court of Emperors Frederick III and Maximilian I. The holder of this office was responsible for the table silver, table linen and the setting of the imperial table.

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Sisi Museum

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

Imperial Apartments

The Hofburg was the residence of the Habsburgs for over 600 years and thus the centre of the Holy Roman Empire.

Further Reading