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Vienna: Skip-the-Line Sisi Museum, Hofburg and Gardens Tour
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Vienna preserves the indelible memory of Elisabeth of Bavaria, better known as Sissi, the empress who deeply marked the history of the Habsburg monarchy. Her romantic and tragic figure continues to fascinate millions of visitors who every year tour the places where she lived, loved and suffered.
Visiting Vienna in the footsteps of Sissi means immersing yourself in the atmosphere of 19th century imperial Vienna. From the sumptuous halls of the Hofburg to the private rooms of Schönbrunn, each room tells a chapter of the empress’s life, from her youthful hopes to the disappointments of her maturity.
Sissi’s fascination lies in her complex personality: a beautiful but tormented woman, a lover of freedom but trapped in rigid court protocol, a sensitive poetess but condemned to a public role she did not feel was her own.
This guide will take you through the main sites related to Princess Sissi in Vienna. If you would like to deepen your visit to the Austrian capital, check out our comprehensive guide to what to see in Vienna.
The Hofburg is the heart of imperial Vienna and the main residence where Sisi spent most of her life as empress. The monumental complex houses the Imperial Apartments where you can walk through the private rooms of Elisabeth and Franz Joseph.
The Sissi Apartments reveal the empress’s sensitivity and torments. Her private gymnasium, reconstructed with original 19th-century equipment, bears witness to Elisabeth’s obsession with fitness and beauty. Here she practised daily gymnastic exercises on the rings and the bar, an activity considered totally inappropriate for an empress of the time.
The dressing room displays reproductions of Sissi’s famous dresses and objects related to her legendary beauty care. The empress devoted three hours a day to the care of her very long hair, which reached her ankles, and followed strict diets to maintain her slim figure. The famous corset on display shows a waist of just 50 centimetres.
The Sisi Museum, opened in 2004 and completely renovated in 2023, occupies six rooms and presents more than 300 personal objects of the empress. Here you will find her fan to hide her face when she did not want to be observed, her poetic diaries written in ancient Greek, and the travel suitcase she always carried with her.
Particularly touching is the room dedicated to Sissi’s last days, with documents and photographs of the tragic assassination in Geneva in 1898. The Italian anarchist Luigi Lucheni hit her with a sharp file, and the empress died a few hours later at the age of 60.
Schoenbrunn Palace provided Sisi with a refuge from court life at the Hofburg. The palace, with its 1,441 rooms, is one of Europe’s most important architectural complexes and has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1996.
On the Grand Tour, which includes 40 rooms, walk through the flats where Sissi spent the summer months. The Empress’ bedroom retains the original four-poster bed made of gilded wood and cream-coloured silk, where Elisabeth slept on a simple horsehair mattress, rejecting the luxury of soft upholstery.
The blue Chinese Salon, decorated with fine oriental wallpaper, was Sissi’s favourite place for family portraits. It was here in 1865 that the painter Franz Xaver Winterhalter created the famous portrait of the empress with her hair adorned with diamond stars, the image that made Sissi immortal in the collective imagination.
The children’s flats tell Elisabeth’s painful personal story as a mother. The death of her eldest daughter Sophie when she was only two years old during a trip to Hungary in 1857 left a deep mark on the empress.
The 160-hectare gardens of Schönbrunn were the place where Sissi loved to ride and walk in solitude. The Crown Garden was her favourite spot for reading poetry and writing in her diaries. The Gloriette, the monumental neoclassical structure that dominates the hill above the palace, offers a panoramic view of Vienna that Sissi admired on her walks.
The Capuchin Crypt (Kapuzinergruft) houses the sarcophagi of 149 members of the Habsburg imperial family, including Empress Elisabeth. This sacred place is the final stop on the Sissi Trail in Vienna.
Sissi’s sarcophagus is located in the New Imperial Crypt, built in 1908, next to those of her husband Franz Joseph and son Rudolf. The empress’s bronze sarcophagus is decorated with symbols that recall her personality: an anchor representing hope, a rose for beauty, and an imperial eagle symbolising her historical role.
Sissi’s funeral ceremony on 17 September 1898 was attended by thousands of Viennese who sincerely mourned the death of the Empress. Despite her difficult relations with the court, Elisabeth was loved by the Austrian people and especially by the Hungarians.
Next to Elisabeth’s sarcophagus lies that of her son Rudolf, who died tragically in 1889 in Mayerling in circumstances that have never been fully clarified. The crypt also houses the hearts of the Habsburgs in separate silver urns, according to the imperial family tradition. Sissi’s heart is located in the Augustinerkirche, the Augustinian church where she was married in 1854.
The Augustinerkirche, the Augustinian church located within the Hofburg complex, is the place where Sissi’s life as empress officially began. It was here on 24 April 1854 that the wedding between 16-year-old Elisabeth of Bavaria and Emperor Franz Joseph took place.
The wedding ceremony was lavish but brief, according to Habsburg protocol. Sisi wore a white dress embroidered in silver with a 7-metre train, while Franz Joseph wore the uniform of a field marshal. Accounts of the time describe Elisabeth as visibly nervous, aware that her life was about to change radically.
Inside the church, the Crypt of Hearts (Herzgruft) holds in silver urns the hearts of 54 members of the imperial family, including that of Sissi. This Habsburg tradition involved separating the body, heart and viscera in different places.
The church itself is a masterpiece of Austrian Gothic, with its cross vaults and elegant columns. Sissi frequented this place for compulsory court services, even though her personal religiosity was rather critical of the outward forms of Viennese Catholicism.
The Imperial Furniture Museum (Hofmobiliendepot) houses the world’s largest collection of furniture and furnishings from the Habsburg imperial family. Among the 165,000 items in the collection, the section dedicated to Sissi offers an intimate insight into the daily life of the empress.
The reconstruction of Sissi’s travel room shows the folding bed that the empress took with her on her frequent trips around Europe. Elisabeth was a tireless traveller, spending months in Switzerland, Greece, England and the Mediterranean islands, always in search of freedom.
Sissi’s collection of fans reveals how the empress used them not only as fashion accessories but also as shields to conceal her face. After the age of 30, obsessed with the fear of growing old, Elisabeth rarely had her photograph taken and used the fans to protect herself from prying eyes.
The museum also exhibits the original scales that Sisi used daily to check her weight. The empress weighed around 50 kg for a height of 172 cm, the result of a very strict diet. An entire room is dedicated to the furniture in Sissi’s private study, where she wrote her poems in German and ancient Greek, revealing a cultured and intellectually lively but deeply melancholic woman.
For the best experience in the footsteps of Sissi, plan at least two full days to visit all the main sites at leisure. The combined Sisi Ticket is the most economical solution, allowing access to the Hofburg, Schönbrunn and Imperial Furniture Collection with a single ticket.
The best time to visit Vienna following in the footsteps of Sissi is in spring (April-May) or autumn (September-October), when the Schönbrunn Gardens are at their most beautiful and tourist crowds are more manageable. In winter, the imperial palaces offer a charming atmosphere.
Be sure to visit the famous Café Sacher to taste the famous Sachertorte in an ambience reminiscent of the imperial era. For more Viennese dining experiences, check out our guide to where to eat in Vienna.
City Card allow you to save on public transport and / or on the entrances to the main tourist attractions.
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