The Red Archduchesses' chambers
This appartment was home to one of the Habsburg dynasty's most unusual archduchesses, whose life story reads like something from the pages of a gripping novel. The only daughter of Crown Prince Rudolf and princess Stephanie of Belgium, Archduchess Elisabeth Marie of Austria was welcomed to the world by canon salutes and joyful parades in the heart of the Austro-Hungarian empire.
Her grandfather and godfather was none other than his Majesty Emeror Franz Joseph. Known to the family as Erzsi (the Hungarian form of Elisabeth), she was named after her legerndarily beautiful grandmother Sisi.
“It is widely believed that the ‘Red Archduchess’, Elisabeth Petznek, the daughter of Crown Prince Rudolf slept
in this part of the palace towards the end of the monarchy.”
MAG. dR. Franz sattlecker, Managing director of Schloss Schönbrunn Kultur- und Betriebsges.m.b.H.