From Augsburg to the Sisi Palace - The Sisi Road in Bavaria

Augsburg - Unterwittelsbach - Neuschwanstein

The most western point of Sisi’s Road is the Fugger city Augsburg. Elisabeth’s brother lived on Maximilianstrasse during his time as an officer in Augsburg. Duke Ludwig fell in love with the Jewish actress Henriette Mendel and married her in 1859 – a scandal! The first (and also illegitimate) daughter from this marriage led a life like one written in a Hollywood script. Marie Louise Elisabeth of Larisch-Wallersee became Sisi’s favorite niece and triggered the tragedy in Mayerling in which Elisabeth’s only son Rudolf committed suicide. She was thus banished from court and went to America. Later she returned to Augsburg where she died in 1940.

Young Sisi experienced carefree childhood days only a few kilometers from Augsburg in Wittelsbach country around Aichach. The “Sisi Palace,” which for years was the favorite summer residence of Sisi’s father Duke Max in Bavaria, is located in the town of Unterwittelsbach. The nearby Palace Kühbach and the hunting lodge Rapperzell also belonged to Sisi’s father who owned a huge hunting ground here in so-called “Wittelsbach Country.”

From Augsburg or Aichach you can arrive in Munich, the birthplace of Elisabeth of Austria,as well as at Lake Starnberg in less than one hour by car. Here Palace Possenhofen can be seen – the summer residence of Sisi’s mother Ludovika, and first in 1850 also her father’s.

Possenhofen is across from Palace Berg, near the location where King Ludwig II drowned in the lake. The eccentric Bavarian king and his cousin Elisabeth met together on Rose Island near Feldafing which today can be viewed once again.

It is only about a two-hour ride along the Romantic Road to the dream castle Neuschwanstein of the fairytale- king Ludwig II in Schwangau near Füssen. For tourists from all over the world Neuschwanstein is the peak of their travels in Germany.