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Hi there! I watched a series today that was so bad it made be write the first blog post in one and a half years. Will I write more again in the future? I don't know, I guess we'll see. In the meantime, follow all my latest castle adventures over on Instagram . See you there! Empress Elisabeth of Austria, the immortal Sisi, has inspired the imagination of the people for more than a century now. Her life, her love, her tragedies, her death. Adored, free spirited and one of the original royal IT girls. A face that could launch a thousands ships, well, bring peace to two feuding nations by simply being her charming self. A woman that, 120 years after her death, can still draw crowds and be the foundation stone of what seems like half the tourist industry of several regions. (Okay, that might have been slightly exaggerated but have you ever been to Vienna and seen the souvenir shops?) So it's not too surprising that time and time again, cinema and TV productions have tried to ca...

The "Wittelsbacher Ausgleichsfonds" or How the Bavarians Probably Got the Best Deal When the Monarchy Ended

January 05, 2020

The Great Hall of Schloss Nymphenburg They came to power during the 12th century in the days of Holy Roman Emperor Friedrich I Barbarossa - and on November 7, 1918, their head of the family was the first German King forced to abdicate. But in the end, the former Royal Family of Bavaria may just have gotten the best deals of all the formerly reigning families in Germany. You see, the German nobility is full of curious inheritance cases like the Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg's or the Thurn und Taxis' . In addition to these internal family matters, there are also some interesting constructions between former German reigning family and the German state - or one of its federal states. Case in point: The Wittelsbacher Ausgleichsfonds . It was established as a public foundation in 1923 within the framework of the apportionment of assets and liabilities between the Free State of Bavaria and their former royal family, the Wittelsbachs. Five years prior, in 1918, the monarchi...

Vienna Day 6: Art Museums and Sachertorte

May 24, 2015

Today is Sunday and somehow it became a lazy Sunday even though I'm still in Vienna. This morning I suffered from a major case of Eurovision Song Contest hangover and only got out of bed around 12:30pm-ish. However, I still made it to two museums to get another dose of art. First I went to the Kunsthistorisches Museum , literally the "Museum of Art History" though also often referred to as museum of fine arts in English. The museum is housed in a palatial building on the famous Ringstraße ... ...just opposite from the Naturhistorisches Museum (Natural History Museum) which is housed in an identical building. Built by Emperor Franz Joseph I, both were opened in 1891. Between the two museums lies the Maria-Theresien-Platz square featuring a memorial dedicated to one of the most famous members of the Habsburg dynasty. One thing is for sure: Most of Vienna's museums are worth visiting alone for their architecture. Case in point, the stairway hall of the Ku...

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