Bavaria

Relaxed, casual and carefree – these and similar characteristics adequately describe Sisi’s relationship to Bavaria, the state in which she was born “under a lucky star” on December 24. Young and unrestrained, she relishes growing up in the Bavarian landscape. Her entire life she will yearn for this lost paradise of her childhood: for the joyful and lighthearted summers in Possenhofen, the wildness of nature surrounding the mansion in Unterwittelsbach, and for the autonomous life of her childhood and youth.

Even as Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary she visits her home in Bavaria repeatedly. Here she discovers new havens of recluse such as the Rose Island in Lake Starnberg – an important zone of freedom for her constrained, misunderstood soul – and the nearby castle “Possi.” The place which made her so happy as a child can provide her with refuge and comfort in those times in which she mourns, suffers and flees from life.