Vienna women of choice - Sisi

    On our first day in Vienna Professor M. McFarland told us about Empress Elisabeth (Sisi). She sounds like a very glamorous lady. She was known as the most beautiful woman of her time with hair down to her ankles and an 18 inch waist! From what we learned though I think she was quite vain. She didn’t let people take her photo after she turned 30 even though I’m sure she still looked amazing. She was married at age 16 to her first cousin. I can not believe that people used to be married that young, I can barely even imagine being married now at the age of 21. Something I thought was sad was that her mother in law would take her children away from her and raise them how she wanted. I can not wait to be a mom so if my mother in law did that to me I would be very mad. It also is sad how tragic her death was, being stabbed to death is not how I want to go. She was a very interesting woman to learn about. 

    One important thing I was able to learn about her was that while she got her hair brushed 300 strokes a night, she would learn languages. The one she studied the most was Hungarian. This made the Hungarians love her and so a lot of things are named after her. I think making sure you can connect with people is a great contribution. I think another thing she did that could be seen as an important contribution was marching to her own drum. I think this can be inspiring to other women who feel like they have to fit into a specific mold. They can look at her and see that she didn’t conform to what other people wanted of her and they can have the strength to do the same. 

    I think she has been commemorated well. Maryanne said this was because she died before her husband, who adored her, so he made sure to put up monuments. Her statue is in a beautiful garden which I think is a great symbolism of her beauty during her life. You can also see her show up in the Schönbrunn Palace. Another place I saw her show up was at the famous Viennese cafe, “Cafe Central”. Her painting is hung on the wall which adds to the beautiful decor there. They also have a dessert named “Sisi’s favorite”. This is a very famous place where both tourists and locals go and having her featured in the cafe gets her name out to the public to either remember her or learn about her.



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