Císařovna Sisi a její milovaná místa – Unterreiner Katrin (2016)

Ischl in the Salzkammergut, August 16, 1853. Two days before his twenty-third birthday, Emperor Franz Joseph, during afternoon tea with his family at Seeauer's house, spots his cousin Elisabeth, known as Sisi. Everyone present immediately notices that Franz has eyes only for the pretty fifteen-year-old girl... Before the imperial couple, who found their way to each other in Ischl, lies nearly 46 years together, during which the Salzkammergut represents a place of private happiness and a return to intimate family privacy for Franz Joseph and Elisabeth. Katrin Unterreiner documents all aspects of Elisabeth's stays in the Salzkammergut for the first time; in a careful mosaic of known and unknown sources, she has managed to enrich the image of this extraordinary woman's life with several important insights. She portrays Sisi as a happy mother who has a wayside shrine built for her daughter Marie Valerie on Jainzen, her 'magical mountain' near Ischl, and as a passionate sportswoman whose long and arduous hikes in the mountains drive her companions to despair – as a woman oscillating between enthusiastic intimacy and cool detachment, finding her form of freedom in encounters with nature... KATRIN UNTERREINER studied art history and history at the University of Vienna. Until 2007, she was a researcher...