From Augsburg to Sisi Palace - The Sisi Road in Bavaria

Augsburg - Unterwittelsbach - Neuschwanstein

The most western point of Sisi’s Road is the Fugger city of 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 a character out of a Hollywood movie. 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 Bavarian summer residence of Sisi’s father Duke Max, is located in the town of Unterwittelsbach. The nearby Palace Kühbach and the hunting lodge Rapperzell also belonged to Sisi’s father who owned huge hunting grounds in this so-called “Wittelsbach Country.”

From both Augsburg and Aichach you get to Munich, birthplace of Elisabeth of Austria, as well as to Lake Starnberg in less than an hours drive by car. Here, Possenhofen castle is located – the summer residence of Sisi’s mother Ludovika and as of 1850 also of her father.

Possenhofen is situated opposite Palace Berg, where King Ludwig II mysteriously drowned in the lake. The eccentric Bavarian king and his cousin Elisabeth met 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 Fuessen. For tourists from all over the world Neuschwanstein is the highlight of their travels in Germany.