Empress Elisabeth Memorial Garden

Hidden away in the northern-most corner
of the Volksgarten Park,
in the Art Noveau inspired gardens
along Löwel Street,

lies a marble terraced memorial garden -
planned by the architect Friedrich Ohmann -
for Elisabeth of Austria,
the empress who tragically died
at the hands of a vile assassin in 1898.

A bird
sitting at the edge
of one of two fountains.

Beyond Hans Bitterlich's
gleaming white marble statue of Elisabeth
and the garden's green hedges
beckons the Burgtheater,
the Austrian National Theater.

Die Neue Burg
This is the view
from the memorial garden,
from north to south,
just as Elisabeth would enjoy if she
- and not her marble likeness -
would be sitting there today.

The Neue Burg - the south wing
to the original Hofburg -
was built according to plans by the architects
Karl von Hasenauer and Gottfried Semper,
renowned for their Ringstrassen buildings.
It was to be the last addition
to the large rambling Imperial Palace complex
and took more than thirty years to build:
Begun during Elisabeth's lifetime in 1881,
it was finished fifteen years after her assassination.

For more information
about Empress Elisabeth
click here and here.

Text and images
by Merisi
June 25, 2009