Schweiz

Switzerland is the country of Sisi’s later years. As of 1893, Empress Elisabeth regularly visits the area around Lake Geneva. As a lover of the outdoors, she enjoys the landscape and mountains of the region. Lake Geneva (French: Lac Léman) is the second largest inland lake in surface area in Europe after Lake Balaton. The most important tributary of this lake is the Rhone River, and the Swiss cantons Geneva, Vaud and Valais border its banks while the main part of the southern bank belongs to France.

Dressed in black since the death of her son Rudolph, Sisi arrives wearing this color inTerritet near Montreux on August 30 after a stay in the Imperial Villa of Ischl. On her way, she stops in Bavaria to visit family. And here on Lake Geneva, Sisi’s multifaceted life ends. She has carried a death wish within herself for a long time: “I wish my spirit would escape to heaven through a tiny opening of the heart….” By means of steamboat, the empress travels on September 9 from Montreux to Geneva, the city on the south end of the lake. Only one day later on her return, she is the victim of an assassination. She is brought to her hotel suite and here she succumbs to death. The Genevan Hotel Beau Rivage has dedicated Suite 120 with many of Sisi’s personal belongings in it to this notable day.