Empress Sisi: Possenhofen to Geneva

The Bavarian ducal family spent its summers at Possenhofen Castle and its winters at the Herzog-Max-Palais in Munich. Here Elisabeth, known as Sisi, and her siblings grew up in an "unrestrained, unstructured environment", far from any court. That freedom is the starting point for what follows, because the Habsburg court she married into was anything but unstructured. The castle is not open to the public.

In 1853 Sisi's mother, Princess Ludovika, and her elder sister Helene were invited to the resort of Bad Ischl in Upper Austria, where Helene was to receive Franz Joseph's formal proposal of marriage. The plan went wrong: the young emperor was instantly infatuated with her younger sister, Sisi, and five days later their betrothal was officially announced.

Location precision: The sources name only the resort of Bad Ischl, not the house; the pin is the Kaiservilla lookup in the town.

Visitor guidance: Bad Ischl is a resort town; check what is open before visiting.

Sisi and Franz Joseph were married eight months after the betrothal, on 24 April 1854, at the Augustinerkirche in Vienna, the church where so many Habsburg weddings took place. Court life was hard for the new empress: she had difficulty adapting to the Hofburg and its rigid protocols and strict etiquette, a struggle that shaped the restless travels of her later life.

Visitor guidance: Open as a parish church; check service times before entering.

As a coronation gift, Hungary presented the royal couple with a country residence in Gödöllő, 32 kilometres east of Budapest. In the next year Elisabeth lived primarily there, away from the Vienna court. The sources name the residence but give no pin we could verify, so this stop appears without a marker.

Location precision: The text names Gödöllő, not an exact building, and no pin could be verified.

In 1888 Elisabeth visited Corfu and decided it was the ideal place for her own palace. "I want a palace with pillared colonnades and hanging gardens, protected from prying glances," she wrote. The palace was named after Achilles, and the German sculptor Ernst Herter was commissioned to make works inspired by Greek mythology; his Dying Achilles is the centrepiece of the gardens. Elisabeth visited frequently until spring 1896.

Visitor guidance: The palace and gardens are open to visitors; check hours before you go.

In 1898 the 60-year-old Elisabeth travelled incognito to Geneva. At 1:35 p.m. on 10 September she and her lady-in-waiting, Countess Irma Sztáray, left the Hôtel Beau-Rivage on foot to catch the steamship Genève for Montreux. On the promenade the Italian anarchist Luigi Lucheni approached them and fatally stabbed her in the heart. Six sailors carried her back to the hotel on a stretcher improvised from a sail, cushions and two oars, and she was pronounced dead at 2:10 p.m.

Visitor guidance: The lakeside promenade in front of the hotel is a public walk.

On the morning of 17 September 1898 her funeral cortege, followed by eighty-two sovereigns and high-ranking nobles, went to the Imperial Crypt at the Capuchin Church, the principal place of entombment of the Habsburg dynasty. The coffin first read only "Elisabeth, Empress of Austria"; the Hungarians were outraged, and the words "and Queen of Hungary" were hastily added.

Visitor guidance: The Imperial Crypt is visited through the Capuchin Church in central Vienna.