Hungary

Hungary becomes the country of Sisi’s passions, passion in her political engagement and passion of a private nature. Against the will of the Viennese court, Sisi uses her personal engagement to assist Hungary to its former condition of 1848. This action becomes a milestone in world history.

Here the empress who has become restless as well as extravagant finds a new oasis of tranquility and stability, and a new home which resembles her original disposition. Sisi is able to empathize with the Hungarian people’s pursuit for liberty, longing for her own. And in Hungary, she can withdraw outdoors unobserved, as often as she likes.

She loves the country and its people so much that she soon learns to speak Hungarian fluently. She meets the revolutionary Count Gyula Andrássy, a man who has a defining influence on her relationship to Hungary. With his assistance, Elisabeth is crowned in Budapest in 1867. It is the groundbreaking beginning of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, also known as the “K.u.K Monarchy.” Here Sisi is a passionate queen, not one only out of duty. She spends much of her time in the countryside in her favorite palace Gödöllö near Budapest.

In Hungary, where Sisi’s firstborn child died so tragically at a tender young age, her last child, Marie Valerie, planned and loved above all, is born after difficult years of marriage. The child practically grows up in this country, with a Hungarian-speaking governess at her side. Elisabeth, Queen of Hungary, is still respected and honored today by the people of this country.